U.S. President Joe Biden walks out from the South Portico of the White House in Washington, D.C. Jan. 21, 2022.(Photo: Xinhua)

The overall job approval ratings of US President Joe Biden had declined to 40 percent, the lowest since he took office, as shown in the results of a recent poll by NBC News. Nile Gardiner, a UK foreign policy analyst, joked Monday on Twitter that Biden's presidency is "sinking faster than the Titanic."

According to NBC's data, almost one year ago, around 53 percent of Americans approved of Biden's performance. Since then, the approval ratings seemed to go downhill. Apart from Biden's unsatisfying domestic policies, the escalated Russia-Ukraine conflict is also playing an important role in the decline of Biden's job approval.

On the ongoing Ukraine crisis, the US president has chosen a rather radical route against Russia. He keeps pulling in Washington's allies to get tough with Russia through means like sanctions. However, the recent NBC poll showed that 70 percent of Americans had low confidence in Biden's ability to deal with the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Apparently, how the Biden administration is dealing with the Russia-Ukraine conflict not only lacks wide support in the international community, but also faces great dissatisfaction at home.

In addition, it seems Biden has "bad blood" with Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, despite the rising anti-Russian sentiment in the West, such hostility toward Putin personally still failed to make things better for the US president. What Biden stated on Saturday, which has made him suspected of supporting a regime change in Russia, was criticized in the US. At the same time, the leaders or senior officials of US allies, including the UK and France, have also attempted to make a clean break with Biden's statements.

Biden is in no position to advocate the overthrow of Putin, given Biden's own poor job approval ratings at home. When playing tough in the Ukraine crisis, he should take a look at how much support American people give him. 

 Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times that Biden's policy during the current Russia-Ukraine tensions has led to widespread concern in the US that he could lead the country into a new conflict, something the public doesn't want to witness. This is an important reason behind Biden's current low support at home.

"This demonstrates the great divergence between the US elite and the public: political elites in Washington strive for so-called US leadership and hegemony while disregarding the country's situation and the public's needs," Li noted.

Some leaders tend to take advantage of a crisis to gain political points. In 2020, Biden successfully used the crisis of COVID-19 to defeat Donald Trump in the presidential election. This year, he wants to play the same trick again - using the Ukraine crisis to gain more support in the midterm elections.

Li believes that even if the Biden administration tries to take some action to improve its approval ratings now, there is not much room left for Biden and the Democratic Party to do so. "The Republicans will certainly take advantage of this situation to take down the Democrats. To some extent, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has assisted Republicans," he noted.

After four years of political chaos during the Trump era, many Americans had high expectations of Biden, believing the democratic president can bring the US back to the right track. But it turns out that the deep-rooted problems in Washington's political system cannot be easily resolved by a change in administration or ruling party.