Record-setting at being unpopular, that is.
This Gallup poll shows Trump’s approval rating now stands at 36%. This is a little over 60 days into his term as president. You know, when the president is normally still popular, having just been elected.
Trump’s current 36% is two percentage points below Barack Obama’s low point of 38%, recorded in 2011 and 2014. Trump has also edged below Bill Clinton’s all-time low of 37%, recorded in the summer of 1993, his first year in office, as well as Gerald Ford’s 37% low point in January and March 1975. John F. Kennedy’s lowest approval rating was 56%; Dwight Eisenhower’s was 48%.
But good news! It can get worse, as these past presidents have demonstrated:
Presidents George W. Bush (lowest approval rating: 25%), George H.W. Bush (29%), Ronald Reagan (35%), Jimmy Carter (28%), Richard Nixon (24%), Lyndon Johnson (35%) and Harry Truman (22%) all had job approval ratings lower than 36% at least once during their administrations.
Mind you, these presidents actually had to do stuff to earn those low approval ratings. Trump is just naturally gifted.
The latest polling came after the Republicans pulled their American Health Care Act from a vote in the House. These are the same Republicans that railed against the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or Obamacare as many called it) for seven years, vowing to repeal it and replace it with something better. Finally, with control of all three branches of government–the House of Representatives, the Senate and the Presidency–they couldn’t do it.
Trump blamed the Democrats for not voting for a terrible plan. The Tea Party (“Freedom caucus”) want to burn down the country and were opposed to the AHCA because it didn’t have enough burning. Enough of the few sane Republicans balked that they realized it was unlikely to pass, so it got pulled. Trump also blamed the Tea Party contingent. He did not blame his own foolish brinkmanship (demanding a vote on a Friday before they had enough votes). He figured he could boss his party around and found out he couldn’t.
Because he is an untalented idiot.
Because he has more ego than sense.
Because his father handed him a fortune and he only excels in spending it poorly and having businesses go bankrupt, showing all the savvy of a damp towel.
And yet I still come back to 62 million Americans voted for him. And the average Republican still loves him, even as his first two months has been a string of disasters and embarrassments.
Because, apparently, 62 million Americans really like having an untalented idiot in the White House. One of their own, perhaps.