From policy to personnel, Trump scores historically low poll numbers
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Why is Trump facing historically low poll numbers?
The data is in. It's been a month officially as of today for this new presidential term. And what the data says sort of broadly, bottom line, is that the country kind of hates this guy. I shouldn't say hate. It's not the right word. It's not a nice word. Maybe it's can't stand him. Um, or maybe I shouldn't characterize it at all. Uh, we'll just, I'll show you the numbers. I will say we probably should have seen this coming. I didn't necessarily believe that it was coming this far, this fast, but you know, right out of the gate, Gallup did polling, um, just after the inauguration. They did their first poll on public opinion of Trump in this second term, starting immediately after the inauguration.
Literally, they had their first poll in the field the first full day Trump was in office, the day after he was sworn in. That is the definition of the honeymoon period, right? That's when you are at your high watermark in terms of what people are expecting from you and hoping for from you. But in that first Gallup poll of this presidential term, sort of shockingly, Trump was already underwater. In his first week in office, more Americans disapproved of him than approved of him. I mean, only by one point, but still, that's unheard of. That's a more than unusual thing in presidential polling. Gallup, in fact, said at the time that in the 70-plus years they have been doing presidential polling, Donald Trump is the only president for whom his approval ratings were underwater right at the start of his term in office, meaning more people disliked him than liked him. So in that first week Gallup poll, Trump was underwater, 47 approving, 48% disapproving.
So that means he was coming in at minus one. And like I said, that was something we haven't seen with any other president. And to me, actually, it was shocking enough that I didn't think it would stand. I thought that would be sort of an outlier. But now look at this. Gallup just did its follow-up poll, now one month into Trump being back in office, and his numbers have gotten worse. He's not minus one anymore. Now he's minus six, which makes him, at this point in his term, not only the most disliked and unpopular president in 70-plus years of Gallup polling, Gallup says it actually puts him 15 points below the average polling for presidents. Again, over the last 72 years in which they have been doing this polling.
At this point, in a presidential term, one month in, the average is 15 points higher than where Trump is right now. Nobody has ever started off a presidential term this poorly in the eyes of the American people. I mean, all presidents are above water at this point in their presidencies, right out of the gate. Trump's the only one. Trump was underwater with the American public from day one, and since then he's been sinking like a cinder block in an ocean trench. I did not know to expect that. And, you know, to be fair, part of the reason I'd expected that that Gallup number might go up and not down is because Gallup's not the only game in town. There were other national well-regarded quality polls that came out right at the start of Trump's term that did show him in positive territory, not big positive territory, but still positive. Like, for example, the Quinnipiac poll. which came out in late January, right after Trump was sworn in, it showed Trump doing okay. I mean, not great, but in that poll, he was above water. He was plus three.
But now though, again, one month in that same poll, Quinnipiac, oh, it's flipped. He has gone from plus three in his first week in office to minus four now. That is a quick turnaround for a poll that initially looked OK for him less than a month ago. It looked OK for him. Now it looks terrible for him. Why is that? Well, it's because Trump's been doing stuff. And what the data shows is that almost every single thing he has done is soundly and clearly and in some cases wildly unpopular with the American people. Again, just look at that Quinnipiac poll that shows Trump underwater right now. More Americans disapproving of him than approving of him, right? He was plus three right after he got sworn in. Now he's minus four.
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