Donald Trump has opened a 6-point lead over President Biden among voters nationally, with 80% saying that the president is too old to run for a second term, a new Wall Street Journal poll finds.
Trump’s lead over Biden in a two-person matchup, 48% to 42%, is the widest in Journal surveys dating to late 2021 and compares to a 2-point lead in February. The new survey began interviewing voters two days after the debate with Trump that left the 81-year-old Biden’s Democratic colleagues panicked about the president’s possible cognitive decline and their party’s weakening election prospects in November.
The new survey contains a range of signs that Biden’s political standing has weakened, at a time when a small but growing number of Democrats are calling for him to withdraw as the party’s nominee. The share who say he is too old to run rose 7 points from the Journal’s survey in February. Some 34% now view the president in a favorable light, a low mark in Journal surveys. Fewer than 40% approve of his handling of inflation, immigration, the economy or his office overall.
The survey finds widespread discontent with both candidates, as nearly half, some 47%, would replace both men on the ballot if they could and 53% say they aren’t enthusiastic about anyone running for president.
Democrats show significant discontent with Biden as their nominee. Some 76% say he is too old to run this year—about the same share as Republicans who hold that view. About two-thirds would replace Biden on the ballot with another Democrat.
Trump’s 48% support is the highest recorded for him in a Journal poll on the test head-to-head ballot. He held a similar, 6-point lead over Biden in the new survey, 42% to 36%, on a test ballot that included Robert F. Kennedy Jr.and other independent and third-party candidates.
While the survey showed a deterioration in Biden’s standing, views of Trump were largely stable. Some 48% said they approved of Trump’s performance when he served in the White House, unchanged from February. Some 56% said they viewed Trump as too old to run for the office, up from 52% in the prior survey.
The Wall Street Journal poll interviewed 1,500 registered voters from June 29 through July 2. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points for the full sample.
Write to Aaron Zitner at aaron.zitner@wsj.com