President Donald Trump already had low approval ratings. Now they’ve gotten worse and the commander in chief has the dubious honor of having the worst six-month approval rating for any president over the past 70 years. A mere 36 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s job performance, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll. That marks a six-point decline from Trump’s approval rating after his first 100 days in office. His disapproval rating, meanwhile, has risen five points since April to 58 percent while 48 percent say they “disapprove strongly” of Trump’s job performance.
The only other president to experience similarly low approval ratings during his first six months in office was Gerald Ford, who had 39 percent in February 1975. In contrast, both former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush were at 59 percent after six months in office.
Trump didn’t seem that concerned about the poll results on Sunday, taking to Twitter to question the credibility of the survey while also noting that “almost 40% is not bad at this time.”
This latest poll was conducted July 10-13 amid a flurry of news about the meeting that Donald Trump Jr. had with a Russian lawyer offering damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Overall, 63 percent of Americans said the meeting was inappropriate while 60 percent think Russia tried to influence the election and 44 percent say the Trump campaign benefited from the Kremlin’s efforts.
The president’s job approval rating looks quite different in the counties that propelled him to victory last year, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. In those counties, the president’s approval rating clocks in at 50 percent, compared to 46 percent who disapprove of his job performance.
In the country as a whole though, Americans are having strong doubts about Trump’s effectiveness as commander in chief and his ability to properly represent the United States around the world, according to the ABC News/Washington Post poll. A mere 38 percent of Americans say Trump has made significant progress toward advancing his agenda, while 55 percent disagree. Two-thirds of Americans don’t trust Trump to negotiate with world leaders and only 27 percent think the country’s leadership on the global stage has gotten stronger since January.
The poll also reveals Americans are not really believing that they’d be better off by the Republican plan to replace Obamacare. While 50 percent of Americans say they prefer Obamacare, only 24 percent favor the Republican plan. That’s not to say Americans are feeling positive about the Democratic Party. More than half of Americans think Democrats stand “just against Trump” while only 37 percent say the party actually stands for something.
