The following article by Jessica Kwong from Newsweek was posted on the National Memo website November 24, 2017:
According to an interactive infographic by the data-aggregating website FiveThirtyEight updated on Wednesday, which was Trump’s 307th day in the White House, his approval rating was an unimpressive 38.4 percent. Disapproval was 55.5 percent.
That’s poorer than some of the least popular American presidents, including Richard M. Nixon, who played a major role in the Watergate scandal and is the only commander-in-chief to have resigned; Gerald Ford, who granted a controversial presidential pardon to Nixon; and Lyndon B. Johnson, who failed to lead the U.S. out of the Vietnam War.
Trump was already named the least popular president in history earlier this year, but here’s how his latest 38.4 percent approval rating measures up over the same number of days to those of a dozen of his predecessors, from lowest—still above Trump—to highest:
Bill Clinton had a 48.1 percent approval rating in 1993.
Ronald Regan had a 49.3 percent approval rating in 1981.
Gerald Ford had a 49.6 percent approval rating in 1974.
Barack Obama had a 50.6 percent approval rating in 2009.
Jimmy Carter had a 56.1 percent approval rating in 1977.
Dwight D. Eisenhower had a 61.6 percent approval rating in 1953.
Harry S. Truman had a 62.9 percent approval rating in 1945.
Richard Nixon had a 66.9 percent approval rating in 1969.
George H. W. Bush had a 69.8 percent approval rating in 1989.
Lyndon B. Johnson had a 74 percent approval rating in 1963.
John F. Kennedy had a 78.8 percent approval rating in 1961.
George W. Bush had an 85.1 percent approval rating in 2001.
Trump has repeatedly denied the validity of approval ratings that shed an unfavorable light on him. Earlier this month, he tweeted that “#FakeNews likes to say we’re in the 30s. They are wrong,” and cited a 46 percent approval rating by right wing polling site Rasmussen Reports.
But even that 46 percent approval rating is two points below Clinton, who had the lowest rating of the dozen presidents that FiveThirtyEight compared to Trump.
Trump’s record low score likely has something to do with his hot-headed rhetoric on Twitter, the divisions he’s exacerbated between Democrats and Republicans, and his complete lack of legislative victories.
The FiveThirtyEight approval rating tracker combines public polls and adjusts for a survey’s quality, recency, sample size and partisan lean.
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