Unlike in the UK where for less importance is attached to leader ratings the approval numbers for an incumbent US president are generally seen as a good indicator of how the next election is going to shape out.

YouGov, which is now very well established in the US, just put out its latest chart showing the trend since just after Trump became president in early 2017 till the present day. What can be seen is that he has had much wider approval gaps and although there has been a slight narrowing the fact remains that he is still has a double-digit deficit..

The current coronavirus epidemic continues to dominate the American news cycle and extraordinaryily Trump has a sought to brag about the size of the TV audiences for his recent daily briefings.

Following the decision by Bernie Sanders to formally quit the race everything is all set for 77 year old Joe Biden to take on 74 year-old incumbent in November.

The Democratic flag carrier is not without his own troubles with some recent revelations about what he is alleged to have done with a woman aide 27 years ago. What the truth is we don’t know but the New York Times has come under some fire for the way it has downplayed the story. This has the potential to explode again at any time.

In the betting Trump is rated on Betfair as a 50% chance with Biden at 40%.

Mike Smithson