Trump stumbles into midterms as least popular president in modern history

As Trump makes his last-minute racist pitches aimed at the torch-carrying base of the Republican Party, he staggers toward the midterm election as the least popular leader in modern history.

According to CNN, Trump is the only president to head into his first midterm with an approval rating below 40 percent, coming in at an un-respectable 39 percent.

President Jimmy Carter headed into the 1982 midterms with a 49 percent approval rating; even President Obama had a 46 percent approval rating in 2010.

But Trump — who has focused his midterm campaign events on a disturbing combination of xenophobic fear-mongering and flat-out lying — is the biggest loser of all presidents going back to President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954.

As Democrats seek to flip at least 23 seats from red to blue and regain control of the House of Representatives, Trump’s approval rating in 69 battleground districts is underwater.

More than half (51 percent) of the voters in those districts disapprove of Trump’s job performance, with only 43 percent approving.

Trump’s unpopularity is bad news for Republicans seeking to maintain control of Congress. According to NPR, “a president’s party has lost an average of 29 seats in his first midterm election, and 44 seats if his approval rating is below 50 percent, like Trump.”

Even though his name is not on the ballot, Trump himself admitted that the midterm election is a referendum on his job performance thus far.

“The election tomorrow is very vital, because it really is summing up what we’ve done,” Trump recently said.

In this case, he’s not wrong.

It’s a chance for voters to weigh in on Trump’s family separation policy, and his attempts to take away health care from people with pre-existing conditions.

It’s an opportunity for working-class families to weigh in on the Republican tax scam that showered Wall Street banks with billions of dollars in kickbacks while leaving regular Americans behind.

It’s a way for Puerto Ricans in Florida to respond to Trump’s callous disregard for the island that was so devastated by Hurricane Maria.

It’s the first time since millions of women marched in big cities and small town to now march to the polls.

Tuesday, Nov. 6, is the first nationwide election after the horrific shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Florida, an event that propelled young people to the center of America’s consciousness as the nation grappled once again with the scourge of gun violence.

Trump’s name isn’t on the ballot, but all 435 seats in the House of Representatives are.

Americans will also vote for 35 U.S. Senators, 36 governors, and hundreds of state and local positions.

Trump is stumbling into the midterm as a historically unpopular incumbent, which could drag down Republicans up and down the ballot.