Just two months in, President Donald Trump’s job approval rating fell from 41% to 36%, which is 2 points below President Obama’s all-time low rating. Yes, the President that Donald Trump the birther was so obsessed with was more popular than Donald Trump, and Trump managed to his this new low two months into his presidency.
According to a Gallup poll Trump’s “job approval rating fell to 36% for the three-day period of March 24-26, following Republican House leaders’ failed effort to pass a new healthcare bill that would have replaced the Affordable Care Act.”
Trump hit his prior low of 37% during the time period of March 16-18.
Gallup pointed out, “Trump’s current 36% is two percentage points below Barack Obama’s low point of 38%, recorded in 2011 and 2014.” Both 2011 and 2014 were years after President Obama took office in 2009, rather than the months it took the nation to disapprove of Trump at alarmingly high numbers.
Although Trump’s numbers have been historic lows for a new president, Gallup does point out that the following presidents had approval ratings lower than 36% at some point: “Presidents George W. Bush (lowest approval rating: 25%), George H.W. Bush (29%), Ronald Reagan (35%), Jimmy Carter (28%), Richard Nixon (24%), Lyndon Johnson (35%) and Harry Truman (22%) all had job approval ratings lower than 36% at least once during their administrations.”
Gallup also pointed out that favorability and job approval ratings are fluid, and that is especially true of polls taken right after a huge political loss. However, this loss was the main Republican promise made to their base voters as a get out the vote tool though every election since the talks about Obamacare — repealing Obamacare. It will be interesting to see if they lose any of their base after falling flat on their faces in a humiliating defeat that ended with them pulling their own bill.
A Quinnipiac poll found that Trump was at 37% approval rating before he even took office. On January 10th, Jason Easley wrote, “Quinnipiac University, Trump has an unfavorable rating of 51% and unfavorable rating of 37%. The president-elect’s favorability ratings are down seven points over the last 30 days.”
The problem for Trump is he has never had high approval ratings. The base that voted for him is not a majority, and he can’t afford to lose any of them. Presidents also need political capital to get anything done, and that is something Donald Trump did not have coming into his job and he most certainly doesn’t have now that he is under multiple investigations for possible collusion with Russia, that is to say, treason.
The Russia scandal can be expected to hold Trump’s numbers down, but the real problem for Republicans is that Trump’s approval rating fell to a new low based on his first attempt at a domestic agenda. Republicans want to believe that they have a mandate, but the GOP agenda remains deeply unpopular. If Trump continues to push hard right Republican policies, new approval rating lows will be a regular occurrance for this president.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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