Trump leaves office with lowest approval rating ever recorded
Donald Trump’s approval ratings never rose above 50%.
Donald Trump’s average approval rating for the entirety of his term in office is the lowest ever measured in the 75 years of Gallup’s polling.
On Monday, Gallup released the result of its final poll before Trump leaves office, reporting that his average approval rating was 41%, which it described as a “record low.”
Gallup’s data goes back to 1945 and Harry Truman’s presidency, who until Trump was the previous record holder, with a 45.4% average approval rating.
“Trump leaves office as the least-positively evaluated president in the Gallup polling era, based on the average of his approval ratings,” Gallup noted.
Trump’s final approval rating, 34%, is 12 percentage points lower than it was in Gallup’s poll right before he lost to President-elect Joe Biden in the presidential election.
In fact, Trump is one of only two presidents to lose ground in the “lame-duck” period after losing his second election. The other is President Jimmy Carter, who suffered a 3-point drop after losing the 1980 presidential election.
The double-digit drop in Trump’s approval rating came as he began promoting lies and conspiracy theories to explain away his election loss, followed up by his incitement of the mob of his supporters that attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Trump has consistently been unpopular. He never polled higher than 50% in Gallup’s polls, matching his poor performance in averages of all approval polls.
Trump’s immediate predecessor, President Barack Obama, left office with an approval rating of 59%, 25 points higher than Trump’s final number. Obama also bested Trump with an average of 47.9% approval over the two terms of his presidency.
Trump’s final approval rating of 34% is the same as that of fellow Republican George W. Bush, but Bush’s overall average of 49.4% over his two terms surpasses Trump’s.
Gallup has not released polling on Biden, but a poll of U.S. adults conducted for the Washington Post/ABC News between Jan. 10 and Jan. 13 found 67% support for how Biden has handled the presidential transition period. In 2017, Trump only achieved 40% support in the same poll.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
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