Trump begins term with historically low approval rating, poll shows
Trump begins term with historically low approval rating, poll shows
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With 47% approval rating Republican is only president to have sub-50% reading at start of term, Gallup poll indicates. Donald Trump is still historically unpopular compared with other new US presidents, a new poll showed. “At 47%, President Donald Trump’s initial job approval rating for his second term is similar to the inaugural 45% reading during his first term, again placing him below all other elected presidents dating back to 1953,” wrote Megan Brenan, a senior editor for Gallup, which carried out the poll.
“Trump remains the only elected president with sub-50% initial approval ratings, and his latest disapproval rating (48%) is three percentage points higher than in 2017.”. John F Kennedy remains the most popular modern president at the start of his term, according to Gallup polling. In the first month of his presidency, in 1961, the Democrat enjoyed 72% approval and just 6% disapproval.
Dwight Eisenhower (1953) and Barack Obama (2009) enjoyed the next-highest approval ratings, at 68%. Jimmy Carter, who died last month aged 100, scored 66% approval in February 1977, at the start of his single term in office. “Most presidents have experienced a ‘honeymoon period’, with strong job approval ratings in the initial months of their presidencies that then fade as time passes,” Brenan wrote.
Not Trump, though other polling has shown him with slightly higher approval ratings. In 2017, Trump arrived in office having beaten Hillary Clinton in the electoral college but having lost the popular vote. This year, Trump is back in power despite having been impeached twice and being the only convicted felon ever elected president; still, he beat Kamala Harris by a convincing margin in the electoral college and by more than 2m ballots in the popular vote.
