Biden celebrates his biggest poll boost since NOVEMBER with a trip to his childhood home while Trump is stuck in court: Joe, 81, heads to Scranton to and keeps campaigning while his rival watches jury members get sent home

President Joe Biden this week got his highest approval rating since November as he prepares to campaign in his hometown while rival Donald Trump is stuck in a New York courtroom.

A new poll from the Financial Times and the University of Michigan found Biden's approval rating sits at 43 percent, which is a 4-point increase from the same poll in March. The last time Biden's rating was that high was November.

In another positive sign for the president, the poll also found that 41 percent of registered voters approved of his handling of the economy, which was a 5-point increase from March.

On Tuesday, Biden, 81, will be in his birthplace of Scranton, where he'll pitch his plan to raise taxes on the wealthy.

The president is spending three days in the state that is critical to his re-election bid.

As he emphasizes his blue-collar roots, Biden will repeat his argument that Trump, a billionaire, only wants to help the wealthy.

'You got Joe Biden, a candidate who sees the world in the kitchen table where he grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Donald Trump, who sees the world from his country club down at Mar-a-Lago,' said Michael Tyler, the Biden campaign communications director. 

Biden consistently paints himself as 'Scranton Joe,' talking about his family's economic struggles that led them to move to Wilmington, Del., when Biden was a child.

In Scranton he'll talk about his plan to expand the child tax credit, institute a tax credit for first-time home buyers and make permanent tax credits for those who buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. 

His message on Tuesday will focus on troubled times as the Financial Times poll showed news for Biden on that front. The poll found higher prices for food and gas weigh on voters. Nearly four in five voters cited inflation among their biggest sources of financial stress.

Biden will tell voters billionaires need to pay more in taxes.

His 'address will drive home a simple question: Do you think the tax code should work for rich people or for the middle class?' Biden's campaign said in a statement.

'The president has made it clear what he thinks the answer is, and so has Donald Trump.'

The president will spend Tuesday night in Scranton and then head to Pittsburgh on Wednesday morning, where he'll give an official address at the headquarters of the United Steelworkers.

He then returns to the White House, only to turn around and go back to Pennsylvania on Thursday, this time visiting Philadelphia.

Those later stops include fundraisers for his re-election campaign.

Biden's campaign swing comes Trump is spending much of the coming month or two in a Manhattan courtroom facing criminal charges tied to a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. 

Biden's team is working to contrast the image of Biden campaigning and carrying on as president while Trump fights legal charges. 

The incumbent president's team said they weren't worried about the trial.

'No matter where Donald Trump is, whether it´s in Mar-a-Lago or a courtroom or anywhere else, he´ll be focused on himself, his toxic agenda, his campaign of revenge and retribution,' Tyler said. 'That´s going to be a continuation of the contrast the American people have been able to see since this campaign began.'

Joe Biden in front of his boyhood in Scranton during the 2020 presidential campaign

Donald Trump is stuck spending the week in a New York City courtroom

Biden and Trump are essentially tied in Pennsylvania, according to the RealClearPolitics voting average.

Trump, 77, won the state from Democrats in the 2016 election, which helped put him in the White House. But Biden took it back in the 2020 contest, although he only won by a mere one point.

Each candidate needs the state if he wants to return to the White House next year.

The former president is watching jury selection in his Manhattan trial. The prosecutors are struggling to find a jury pool that says they can be impartial. 

Trump was last in the state on Saturday, when he held a rally in Schnecksville. The former president's campaigning has been limited to weekends as he fights off criminal charges in New York.