Former President Donald Trump is ahead of President Biden by 4 points and less than a quarter of Americans believe the incumbent is “mentally sharp,” according to a poll released Thursday.
The Pew Research Center survey of more than 7,000 registered voters found Trump, 78, leading Biden, 81, in the horserace by a 44% to 40% margin, with 15% backing independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In a head-to-head matchup, the presumptive Republican nominee has a 3-point edge over the incumbent, 50% to 47% – an improvement from Trump’s 49% to 48% lead in April.
Only 24% of voters agreed that Biden was “mentally sharp,” the poll found, a stark difference from the 58% who said the term describes Trump very or fairly well.
The figure for the octogenarian president represents a steep decline from March 2021, during which Biden peaked with 54% describing him as “mentally sharp.”
In contrast, more voters view Trump as “mentally sharp” in Pew’s latest survey than did so in October 2020, when 50% described as such.
The poll, conducted between July 1-7, after Biden’s disastrous June 27 debate against Trump, comes at a fraught moment for the president as doubts about his mental acuity and ability to defeat the former president in November have ignited numerous calls from Democrats for him to end his re-election bid.
Biden’s latest embarrassing mishap happened in front of world leaders and international press at the NATO summit in Washington Thursday, during which he introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” — confusing him with the Russian strongman.
The gaffe occurred just hours after Biden’s top campaign advisers met with Senate Democrats on Capitol Hill in an effort to allay mounting concerns about the president’s re-election prospects.
Pew’s survey showed Biden scoring higher marks than Trump for “honesty” – 48% to 36% – and more voters finding the former president “mean-spirited” in comparison to the incumbent, 64% to 31%.
Both candidates were found to be equally “embarrassing” amongst registered voters, with 63% indicating that the term fit both Trump and Biden well.