President Donald Trump (I’ll never get comfortable writing that) was thrilled a couple days ago and twitter bragging about a Rasmussen poll that showed his approval rating hitting 50% — the first time he’s polled that high since February. Rasmussen’s results are recognized as historically being more favorable to the GOP and Trump.
But now some other polls are showing Trump’s ratings are still bobbing along below the 50% surface. In fact The Hill.com reports on several polls that show him at record lows.
Morning Consult’s 50-state approval tracker finds 41 percent of registered voters approved of Trump’s job performance during March.
A majority, 54 percent, disapproved of the president’s job performance.
The data from March surpasses [sinks below] the president’s previous lows in the Morning Consult poll. In October and November, 42 percent of respondents approved of Trump’s job performance and 53 percent disapproved.
Other results from an average of poll numbers by RealClearPolitics show a recent approval rating of 41.8 percent for Trump.
A majority, 53.3 percent, disapprove of the job Trump is doing in office, according to the average.
Donald Trump may not be sinking like an anchor but he looks to be swamped, with some polls showing over half of those surveyed disapproving of his performance in office. In the nautical world swamping typically means that a boat fills with water (often from capsizing) but often will remain barely floating, filled to the gunnels — for a while — before finally sinking.
And from what we’ve seen of Trump he’s more likely to head out for a round of golf than to bail his sinking ship.
Here’s a source that I bookmark, because it keeps a running tally so that you can see at a glance how he’s doing. Also, if you scroll down, you can see support by Republicans vs. independents and Democrats, which is the number most likely to be influencing Republican politicians worried about primaries. http://news.gallup.com/poll/203198/presidential-approval-ratings-donald-trump.aspx
What is most interesting to me about these numbers is the truly TINY variability in them over time. His overall approval, which is currently showing at 39% has never been above 45%, and that’s a number he hit only once. It’s never been below 35%, a number he hit 4 times. Otherwise, the full range is between those 2 and really between 36% and 43%.
The margin of error isn’t stated, but it’s usually 4%, which means essentially that his rating doesn’t really change at all over time.
I find that fascinating.
He is locked in with that 39% (+ or -)base approval.And as long as tax cuts and goodies keep arriving for the 1%’ers the GOP majority (for now?) in Congress have his back covered.
Frankly, the reason I like the Gallup numbers is the party breakdown. You say: “as long as tax cuts and goodies keep arriving ….,” I say as long as his Republican poll numbers don’t start dropping dramatically ….
It’s possible that our formulations are saying the same thing differently, but I actually don’t think so.
My guess is that, thanks to Steve Bannon and these numbers, Republican politicians locked themselves into supporting Trump during his repeated early scandals so that they would not have to fear a primary. Bannon is no longer the factor he once was, but a lot of water has flowed over the dam since then (less metaphorically, they backed Trump too many times) so it would be exceedingly difficult for Republicans to walk back their support of Trump now. For the moment, they’re locked in even without Bannon.
The good news (for us) is that after primary season, the Republican numbers no longer matter all that much, since everyone gets to vote in general elections. And THOSE numbers must scare the bijeezus out of Republicans (which may well explain why they’re quitting in record numbers).
That’s my 2 cents, and you got it for free!