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Image: Joe Biden
President Joe Biden arrives at the White House on Sept. 17.Andrew Harnik / AP

Biden outperforms his approval rating in a head-to-head matchup with Trump

Biden's approval rating in the new NBC News poll is just 41%, but he wins 46% of the vote in a general election matchup against Trump.

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President Joe Biden is breaking an old political rule: The same survey that shows Biden with his highest disapproval rating of his presidency also shows him tied with former President Donald Trump in a 2024 matchup.

That's because when he's matched up against Trump in a hypothetical general election, Biden is winning over voters who don't approve of him.

The new NBC News poll, released Sunday, paints a rough picture for Biden. Just 41% approve of his job as president, only 37% approve of his handling of the economy and 28% say they're satisfied with the state of the economy.

But against Trump, the two men are tied at 46% among registered voters.

That's because Biden is outperforming his approval rating on that ballot test, especially with younger voters, Latinos and Black voters, but with women and independents too.

By comparison, the Republican candidate who does the best against Biden of the three tested was former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.

Against Haley, Biden's vote share matches his approval rating: 41%. And his vote share with men, women, white voters, Latino voters, and across voters of varying levels of education is virtually identical to his approval with those groups.