U.S. President Joe Biden boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland en route to Brussels, Belgium, where he will attend and deliver remarks at an extraordinary NATO summit to discuss ongoing deterrence and defense efforts in response to Russia
U.S. President Joe Biden boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland en route to Brussels, Belgium, where he will attend and deliver remarks at an extraordinary NATO summit to discuss ongoing deterrence and defense efforts in response to Russia's attack on Ukraine, March 23, 2022. Reuters / EVELYN HOCKSTEIN

U.S. President Joe Biden's public approval rating fell to 39% in its third straight weekly decline, approaching the lowest level of his presidency, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll completed on Tuesday.

The two-day national poll found that 56% of Americans disapprove of Biden's job performance.

Biden's approval rating has been below 50% since August, a sign that his Democratic Party could be on track to lose control of at least one chamber of Congress in the Nov. 8 midterm election.

Biden has been dogged this year by a surge in inflation, with Russia's invasion of Ukraine helping drive fuel prices higher and global supply chains still hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The decline in Biden's popularity has been largely driven by dissatisfaction within his own party. Seventy-four percent of Democrats approved of Biden's performance this week, down from about 85% in August. Only 11% of Republicans approved, largely unchanged from August.

Biden's overall approval rating has yet to hit the lows seen by his predecessor, Donald Trump, whose popularity bottomed out at 33% in December 2017. Biden's lowest rating so far was 36% in late May.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll is conducted online in English throughout the United States. The latest poll gathered responses from a total of 1,005 adults, including 443 Democrats and 364 Republicans. It has a credibility interval - a measure of precision - of four percentage points.