This is the only living president Republicans and Democrats like, poll finds

Of the five living U.S. presidents, former President Barack Obama is the most popular, with former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton trailing not far behind, according to the latest Gallup poll. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden make up the rear.

But just one member of the world’s most exclusive club is liked by a plurality of both Republicans and Democrats: Bush.

The poll — which sampled 1,001 U.S. adults between Jan. 21 and Jan. 27 — found opinions toward the men have fluctuated significantly over time.

“Presidential image trends tend to follow a similar pattern — generally positive ratings around the time of their inauguration, subdued ratings while in office, usually poor ratings when their presidency ends, and improved favorability after having been out of office for some time,” Gallup said.

Here is a breakdown of the results.

Trump

Fifty percent of respondents expressed an unfavorable view toward Trump, while a slightly smaller share, 48%, said they had a favorable view. Only 2% had no opinion.

While only about half of Americans have a positive view of him, his favorability rating is close to the highest it’s ever been since 1999, when Gallup first asked about him.

Trump’s best rating came in 2005 — the year after the TV show “The Apprentice” first aired — with 50% of poll respondents expressing a favorable view.

Then, during his first term in office, his favorability rating rapidly shifted up and down, with a high of 49% in April 2020, and a low of 36% in early January 2021 — just before the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot. It has generally trended upward since then.

Biden

Biden’s favorability, in contrast, has been trending downward for some time. In the latest poll, a majority of respondents, 57%, expressed an unfavorable view toward him, while 39% said they held a favorable view and just 4% said they had no opinion.

His worst rating came in April 2007 — 16 months before Obama tapped him as his vice presidential running mate — when just 20% of Americans held a favorable view toward him.

His best rating of 61% came a decade later, in January 2017, near the end of his vice presidency and the beginning of Trump’s first term. This was nearly matched by a 59% rating in January 2021, when Biden was inaugurated. After taking office, positive opinions of him began to fall, accompanied by growing concerns about his age and fitness for office.

Obama

In the latest poll, Obama boasts the highest favorability rating, with 59% of respondents expressing a positive view. Thirty-six percent said they have a negative view, and 4% said they had no opinion.

His lowest favorability rating of 42% came in December 2006, two months before he announced his presidential campaign — when many Americans were unfamiliar with him. It rapidly climbed to 78% in January 2009, the month he was inaugurated, before generally trending downward during his eight years in the White House.

Obama left office in January 2017 with a 58% favorability rating — which has more or less held steady since then.

Bush

A slim majority of respondents, 52%, said they held a positive view of Bush, while 34% said they held a negative view, and 14% had no opinion.

When he first came into office in January 2001, he had a 62% favorability rating. It shot up to 87% in November of that year — two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Throughout the rest of his presidency, his popularity trended downward, and he left the White House in January 2009 with a 40% rating. During his post-presidency years, views toward Bush improved, reaching a high of 59% in June 2017 before dipping slightly downward again.

In the latest poll, a plurality of voters of both parties expressed positive views toward him — something no other living president achieved in the poll. Sixty-three percent of Republicans had a favorable opinion, while 29% had an unfavorable view. Forty-eight percent of Democrats, meanwhile, had a positive view, compared to 43% who had a negative view.

When broken down by partisan affiliation, the favorability ratings for the four other presidents were more lopsided, with most Democrats favoring Biden (78%), Obama (96%) and Clinton (77%) and most Republicans favoring Trump (93%).

Clinton

Forty-eight percent of respondents in the latest poll expressed a favorable view toward Clinton, while 41% expressed an unfavorable view and 12% had no opinion.

Clinton came into office riding a wave of popularity, with a favorability rating of 66% in January 1993. His rating fluctuated wildly during his two terms, and in February 2001, shortly after he left the White House, it stood at 42%.

During his early post-presidency years, positive opinions toward him increased, culminating in a high of 69% in August 2012. His rating then fell back down to 45% in December 2017 — during the first year of Trump’s administration.

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