President Trump

On November 5, 2017, Gallup found that 37% of Americans approve of President Trump’s job performance and 57% disapprove.

Below are the President’s job ratings among all voters as found by Gallup on the first of each month, the 15th of the month for the last three months and the first of the month for the previous months of the President’s term.

Date Approval Disapproval
11/1/17 38% 58%
10/15/17 38% 58%
10/1/17 37% 57%
9/15/17 36% 59%
9/1/17 34% 61%
8/15/17 36% 58%
8/1/17 36% 60%
7/1/17 37% 57%
6/1/17 39% 55%
5/1/17 41% 55%
4/1/17 38% 57%
3/1/17 43% 51%
2/1/17 43% 52%

The following are some additional looks at the president’s job performance. (The numbers below are of registered voters unless followed by an “A” which means all voters.) [QUPIAC = Quinnipiac]

Date NBC / WSJ WP / ABC CNN / ORC NYT / CBS FOX QUPIAC
OCT 38/58 A 37/59 38/57cnn 39/55cbsA 38/57 38/56
SEPT 43/52 A 42/54 37/56cnnA xxx 42/53 36/57
AUG 40/55A 39/58 540/56cnnA 36/58cbsA 41/55 35/59
JULY xxx 36/58A xxx xxx 41/53 xxx
JUNE 40/56 xxx xxx 36/57 cbs 44/50 40/55
34/57
MAY 39/54 xxx xxx xxx 40/53 37/55
36/58
APR 40/54 42/53 44/54 43/49 cbs xxx 35/57
MAR xxx xxx 45/52 40/52 cbs 43/51 37/56
FEB 44/48 xxx xxx 39/51 cbs 48/47 38/55
JAN xxx xxx 44/53 40/48 cbs xxx 36/44

The following are job approval numbers from Gallup for the last nine presidents and Trump from the same time period. As you will see, Trump’s job approval rating by the public at large is the worst of any president at this point in their tenure going back to Bill Clinton.

G.W. Bush 87% (11/01)
Kennedy 79% (11/61)
George HW Bush 70% (11/89)
Nixon 67% (11/69)
Eisenhower 59% (11/53)
Carter 55% (11/77)
Obama 52% (11/09)
Clinton 48% (11/93)
Reagan 43% (11/81)
Trump 38% (11/17)

On the question of how Trump is viewed, favorably or unfavorably, and whether they approve or disapprove of his efforts on the economy and foreign policy, respondents have been consistently in the negative range except for a brief moment on the economy in September.

How folks view Trump, favorably or unfavorably, has gone up and down but most recently the number who view him favorably has dropped 8 points since the end of June and conversely those who view him unfavorably has risen by the same number of points in the same period.

  View him favorably View him unfavorably
10/24/17 39% 59%
8/29/17 44% 55%
6/27/17 47% 51%
3/14/17 44% 53%
[Fox News]

On the economy, Trump’s approval rating has ranged within four points and most recently has been–for the second time–at the top of the range. The disapproval scale has ranged over 10 points and at the present time is down 8 points for its high point.

Economy

  Approve Disapprove
10/30/17 46% 47%
9/24/17 43% 46%
8/6/17 46% 45%
6/18/17 42% 51%
4/24/17 43% 49%
3/28/17 44% 55%
[CBS News]

On foreign policy, Trump’s approval and disapproval ratings have each been in a two point range since the spring.

Foreign Policy

  Approve Disapprove
10/10/17 38% 58%
9/26/17 38% 57%
8/15/17 39% 58%
6/27/17 38% 57%
4/18/17 40% 56%
[Quinnipiac]

The NBC/WSJ recently completed a poll of what are described as “Trump Counties”. Trump counties are the 438 counties that “flipped” from voting Democrat in the 2012 election to Republican in 2016 and counties where Trump got 20 points higher or more in 2016 than Romney did in 2012.

In the Trump Counties:

41% say the country is worse off now than it was when Trump became President and 32% say the country is better off now than before Trump won.

53% say they do not think that Trump has a clear agenda while 44% say that he does have an agenda.

35% say that Trump is “not that likely” to bring real change in the direction of the country while 27% say that it is “very likely” that he will bring change.

If health care costs increase and some people lose their health care coverage,
44% believe it is the fault of the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress. 46% believe it is the fault of the Trump administration and the Republicans in Congress.

Here are the news sources that people in Trump counties watch regularly.
(Multiple answers were accepted)

NBC, ABC or CBS 47%
Cable channel – Fox News 34%
Cable channel – CNN 27%
Cable channel – MSNBC 18%
Don’t watch any of the above 20%

Who do you want to see take the lead role in setting policy for the country?

President Trump 29%
Republicans in Congress 22%
Democrats in Congress 38%

62% of the folks in Trump counties are “upset that elites in this country look down on my values and beliefs. [NBC/WSJ, 11/4/17]


In the recent WP/ABC survey, respondents were asked what kind of job they think Trump is doing:

  Excellent/good Not so good/poor
On dealing with race relations 28% 70%
Improving the health care system 26% 70%
Dealing with the threat or terrorism 43% 55%

They were also asked if Trump:

  Excellent/good Not so good/poor
Is keeping most of his campaign promises 35% 55%
Is honest and trustworthy 33% 65%
Is bringing needed change to Washington 42% 55%
  Is biased Is not biased
Is biased against women 55% 40%
Is biased against black people 50% 42%
[WP/ABC, 11/1/17]