Trump’s approval rating has hit a new low

One of the most notable features of President Donald Trump’s presidency was the consistency of his approval ratings. It seemed that, regardless of what he said or did, his approval would hover around 40%, perhaps marking a few points up or down depending on the news cycle.

But it seems that in the last two weeks of his presidency, Trump has finally fallen to the ground.

According to the Pew Research Center, Trump is leaving the job with the lowest approval rating he had during his time at the White House, with only 29% of the public approving his job performance. Other polls are finding similar falls, indicating that Trump’s role in inciting a violent mob that invaded the U.S. Capitol on January 6 and his subsequent impeachment on January 13 marks a low point in his presidency in the public eye.

It remains to be seen whether, or when, Trump’s image improves while he plans what could be a very public post-presidency.

According to Gallup, Trump’s job classification “has remained more stable than that of his predecessors; it never exceeded 45 percent or fell below 36 percent. ”But with 29 percent, it has now reached 7 percentage points below the previous low.

The Pew poll, conducted between January 8 and 12 among 5,360 adults, shows that a significant segment of this is attributable to the decline in Republican support: while Trump had 77 percent approval among Republicans who identify in August, he now has 60 percent approval with that group.

Other research shows similar results. A CNN poll conducted by SSRS, conducted January 9-14 with a sample of 1,003 American adults, also found that Trump had the lowest approval rating for his presidency compared to previous CNN polls, with 34 per percent of respondents approving how Trump is handling his presidency. “Among his own supporters, Trump’s approval rating has dropped 14 points since October,” says the CNN analysis.

There are questions of answer bias – political scientists have found that political supporters are more likely to avoid participating in polls when things go wrong for their favorite politician. That said, several surveys have documented a clear and surprisingly large drop that was not seen in previous lows in Trump’s presidency.

Trump’s approval rating puts him at about half the level of approval of his predecessor, Barack Obama, during his last days in office.

According to CNN’s Manu Raju, Trump is below a large number of previous presidents (though not all) pass ratings before leaving office.

FiveThirtyEight’s net approval vote tracker for Trump had the biggest drop on record in recent days. They identify just two other times when the falls were so hasty: when Republicans began their efforts to revoke Obamacare, and when Trump, shortly after taking office, issued executive orders to initiate what came to be known as his Muslim ban. and build a wall along the US-Mexico border.

What can be most impressive about Trump’s low ratings as he prepares to leave Washington is that, historically, presidents have experienced an increase in approval ratings in their final days, according to FiveThirtyEight. Even George W. Bush saw his net approval (deeply submerged) rise 13 points between the 2008 election and Obama’s inauguration, after an unpopular second term, and in the midst of a financial crisis.

To a ratings-obsessed president who routinely exaggerated his pass numbers, Trump’s unmistakable unpopularity in leaving office would seem like a failure, even on his own terms.