President Joe Biden arrives at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington from Camp David retreat on Tuesday
(Picture: AP)Joe Biden’s approval rating has crashed to its lowest level since his presidency began following the collapse of the US-backed government in Afghanistan.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted on Monday found 46 per cent of American adults approve of the Democrat’s performance in office - down seven percentage points from a similar poll that ran on Friday, just before the Taliban’s swift and dramatic capture of Kabul.
Mr Biden’s popularity plunged as the militants entered the capital, wiping away two decades of US military presence that cost nearly $1trillion and more than 6,000 American lives.
A separate Ipsos snap poll, also conducted on Monday, found that fewer than half of Americans liked the way Mr Biden has steered the US military and diplomatic effort in Afghanistan this year.
The president, who just last month praised Afghan forces for being “as well-equipped as any in the world,” was rated worse than the other three presidents who presided over the United States’ longest war.
As the US military continued efforts to evacuate thousands of US citizens and Afghans, Mr Biden faced fresh criticism from his predecessor Donald Trump, who called the president’s handling of the situation “the greatest embarrassment in the history of our country”.
In an interview with Fox News, Mr Trump blamed Mr Biden for not getting American civilians out of the country before the Taliban swept to power.
“Biden put us in this position. He should have gotten the civilians out first,” he said.
“Then he should have taken the military equipment, because we have billions of dollars a brand-new beautiful equipment. Take the equipment out, and then take the soldiers out.”
Mr Trump approved a deal with the Taliban in February 2020 to pull out US troops by May this year. Mr Biden said he “inherited” the deal, but has stood by the decision to get them out, setting a deadline of September 11 - the 20th anniversary of the al-Qaeda attacks on the US - for a complete withdrawal.
