The following article by Matt Rocheleau was posted on the Boston Globe website March 27, 2017:
President Trump spoke during a bill-signing ceremony in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Monday.
President Donald Trump’s job approval rating has fallen to a new low in the wake of the failure to pass a new health care bill, according to the latest polling results from Gallup.
Just 36 percent of Americans surveyed between Friday and Sunday approved of the job Trump was doing as president, according to Gallup.
That was down from a job approval rating of 41 percent prior to the health care bill’s failure on Friday.
And it was a percentage point below what had been lowest job approval mark of Trump’s young presidency, 37 percent, which was recorded in the three day stretch ending March 18.
By comparison, Obama’s approval rating never dropped below 38 percent during his presidency, Gallup data show.
Most presidents, at one point or another during their time in the Oval Office, have seen their job approval ratings drop about as low as, if not lower, than Trump’s current rating, Gallup data show.
George W. Bush recorded a low of 25 percent;
Bill Clinton’s low was 37 percent;
George H.W. Bush, 29 percent;
Ronald Reagan, 35 percent;
Jimmy Carter, 28 percent;
Gerald Ford, 37 percent;
Richard Nixon, 24 percent;
Lyndon B. Johnson, 35 percent;
John F. Kennedy, 56 percent;
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 48 percent;
Harry S. Truman, 22 percent.
“Presidential job approval ratings are fluid, and all presidents have seen both upward and downward swings in their ratings at various points in their administrations — a historical precedent indicating Trump’s approval could drop further or recover in the weeks and months ahead,” Gallup said in releasing its results.
“An encouraging sign for Trump, perhaps, is that all presidents whose ratings fell below 36% — with the exception of Nixon — saw their ratings improve thereafter. Clinton provides a particularly relevant example. His approval rating dropped to 37% in June 1993 but recovered to 56% by September of that year.”
Trump’s approval rating was at its highest, 46 percent, just after his inauguration.
But at the same time, Trump began his presidency with a record-high disapproval rating of 45 percent, that climbed above 51 percent after just eight days on the job, making Trump the fastest president to attain a majority job disapproval rating.
Trump has paid close attention to apparent measures of his popularity, including his social media following and crowd sizes at his inauguration and at his campaign rallies.
Then again, Trump has played down poll results that were not in his favor, questioning their accuracy and describing them as phony and rigged. And many polls during the campaign underestimated his support around the country and his odds of winning the presidency.
Gallup says its presidential job ratings are based on telephone interviews with approximately 1,500 adults nationwide. The margin of error is ±3 percentage points, the company says.
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