Joe Biden fancies himself a great president with the best economic record in history who restored our nation’s standing in the world after Trump left office. It stands to reason that if Joe Biden’s real record was anything close to how he perceives it, he’d be cruising to reelection. He’s long held the opinion that he is the only Democrat who can beat Trump in November, but Americans think poorly of his economy and don’t think he is physically or mentally capable of doing the job.

In December, reports surfaced that Joe Biden was “frustrated” by his “unacceptably low” poll numbers. According to a new report from NBC News, Joe Biden went from “frustrated” to “seething” really quick.

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“In a private meeting at the White House in January, allies of the president had just told him that his poll numbers in Michigan and Georgia had dropped over his handling of the war between Israel and Hamas,” the network reports. “Both are battleground states he narrowly won four years ago, and he can’t afford any backsliding if he is to once again defeat Donald Trump. He began to shout and swear, a lawmaker familiar with the meeting said.”

For months, Democrats have watched the 2024 campaign unfold with rising alarm as the sitting president struggles to gain ground against his defeated predecessor. Frustrations rippling through the party have reached the top, with Biden at times second-guessing travel decisions and communications strategies that have left much of the electorate clueless about his record, interviews with nearly 20 lawmakers, present and past administration officials and Biden allies show.

The starting gun for the general election campaign fired last week as Biden wrapped up the Democratic nomination. Yet he is still searching for ways to impress upon voters that he deserves a second term by dint of policy achievements that eluded past presidents.

History suggests it will be tough for him to recover. Biden’s 38% approval rating at this stage in the calendar is lower than that of the last three presidents who went on to lose re-election: Trump (48%), George H.W. Bush (39%) and Jimmy Carter (43%), according to Gallup survey data.

Biden thinks he’s not getting credit for creating 15 million new jobs. The main reason for this, of course, is that he didn’t. The country has only netted roughly 5 million jobs compared to pre-pandemic levels, and we’re still behind the pre-COVID growth rate. He’s been claiming historic job creation for three years, and no one is buying it—even his defenders in the media have fact-checked him on this.

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The same article also insists that “Biden’s campaign team remains confident about his chances,” but I’m doubtful about that. The report presents a campaign that is struggling to convince voters he deserves another term or that he’s physically and mentally capable of handling the job.

Some advisers have told him he should walk faster out of concern that his gait feeds impressions that he’s too old. And yet the White House is sufficiently worried about him tripping that he has taken to boarding Air Force One via a shorter staircase through the belly of the plane, forgoing the iconic image of the president waving from the main doorway high above the tarmac.

“He’s probably a little mad at himself for not being more forceful with the staff,” a person familiar with internal discussions said.

Privately, Biden questions whether he should trust his gut instincts over the guidance coming from the array of advisers tending to his political interests, this person added.

His allies blame Biden’s problems on a “failure of communication.” But when you have the mainstream media carrying water for you, communication is not the problem. The problem will always be that his record is not the success he thinks it is and that the campaign can’t cover up his frailties. When they try, all they’re doing is calling attention to them.