The discovery of classified documents in offices used by Joe Biden’s thinktank and in a locked storage unit in a garage near where the president keeps his Corvette may not be a criminal matter, but it does appear to have taken a political toll.

With a new Reuters/Ipsos poll on Thursday finding that Biden’s approval rating, which had risen at the end of 2022, was back down to just 40% – near the lowest level of his presidency – many Democrats are smacking their foreheads, fearing Biden has done exactly what his expected 2024 opponent, Donald Trump, was under investigation for doing.

So much for painting Trump as dangerous, volatile and a threat to national security. Right?

But that’s not to say the two cases are the same. The scale of the scandals is hugely lopsided: thousands of documents in Trump’s possession, including many marked top secret, versus an estimated dozen in Biden’s.

Crucially for justice department investigators, led by the special counsels appointed by the attorney general, Merrick Garland, the actions of the two presidents are also vastly different.

Trump declared his intent to take documents, refused to hand them back, had to be raided by the FBI to secure the records, then fought authorities in court for months.

Biden’s team handed the documents back voluntarily.

Here is a breakdown of how the two cases are similar – and how, in major ways, they are different.

Biden, 80, is expected to launch another run for the White House, perhaps as soon as next month, after he delivers the State of the Union address on 7 February.

Republicans in Congress have slammed the president regarding when the documents were discovered – before the midterms – claiming Biden was not forthcoming about such potentially politically sensitive discoveries.

But the Reuters/Ipsos poll results suggest it isn’t just Biden whose ratings are down as a result of various scandals in Washington.

Only 20% of respondents said they approved of the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, the top elected Republican, while just 35% said they had a favorable view of the House as a whole and 38% approved of the Senate.

In that light, Biden’s head appears to be just above water. He must be hoping no more classified documents emerge to push him back below.