As Donald Trump stumbled through his first few days as president mired in a childish fight with the press over crowd sizes, there’s another number he likely won’t be happy about – his approval rating.
According to Gallup’s very first survey measuring his approval, the new president made history as the first commander-in-chief to receive a rating below the majority mark.
The numbers:
According to the Gallup, 45 percent of Americans approve of the job Trump has done so far. An equal number – 45 percent – disapprove of his performance.
More from the polling firm:
President Donald Trump is the first elected president in Gallup’s polling history to receive an initial job approval rating below the majority level. He starts his term in office with 45% of Americans approving of the way he is handling his new job, 45% disapproving and 10% yet to form an opinion. Trump now holds the record for the lowest initial job approval rating as well as the highest initial disapproval rating in Gallup surveys dating back to Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Gallup continued:
Trump’s inaugural approval rating is not much lower than the 51% recorded for George H.W. Bush in 1989 as well as for Ronald Reagan in 1981, but his disapproval rating is substantially higher than theirs. Whereas 45% disapprove of Trump, only 6% disapproved of the elder Bush and 13% disapproved of Reagan.
All in the matter of a few days, two things that Trump repeatedly bragged about since announcing his presidential campaign – polls and crowd sizes – are now his biggest embarrassments.
Not only is he the most unpopular new president in the country’s history, but turnout for his swearing-in was an embarrassment and the number of people who turned out to oppose him and his ideas afterward was historic – nearly 3 million across the country. None of this is quite that surprising given the fact that Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by a similar margin last November.
The beginning of a president’s term is typically when the commander-in-chief is most widely supported. For Trump, his numbers are dismal on day one – with little room to grow.
