Trump's Approval Rating Plummets to All-Time Low
A new poll released yesterday shows Donald Trump’s approval rating at a record low of 32 percent. The poll was conducted by Monmouth University, and showed that more than two-thirds (68 percent) of women disapprove of Trump’s performance. Among men, 44 percent disapprove.
In other polls released in the past week, Trump has fared only slightly better. In both a Qunnipiac University survey and a Marist College poll, Trump received a 37 percent approval rating.
According to Politico, Trump cares a lot about poll results, and his aids and advisers have taken to showing him only favorable results that they know he will like. It’s likely that these rosy numbers are derived from the unscientific surveys sent directly to people who voted for him, such as this one sent by email from “Trump Headquarters” on Tuesday:
Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute offered this analysis of the recent poll:
“This result is not good for the president. Republicans have to be worried about being dragged down by the weight of Trump’s negatives in 2018 if this trend continues.”
The Monmoth poll was released a day after Republican Roy Moore was defeated by Democrat Doug Jones in an Alabama Senate special election. Trump gave Moore strong support during the campaign, sending tweets such as this:
The people of Alabama will do the right thing. Doug Jones is Pro-Abortion, weak on Crime, Military and Illegal Immigration, Bad for Gun Owners and Veterans and against the WALL. Jones is a Pelosi/Schumer Puppet. Roy Moore will always vote with us. VOTE ROY MOORE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2017
To what degree Moore’s loss and Trump’s declining poll numbers will hurt the Republican Party in the future is yet unknown. Richard Nixon had a 24 percent approval rating when he resigned after the Watergate scandal, and George W. Bush’s was only 25 percent at the end of his presidency.
There has been no shortage of criticism from within the party that nominated Trump, including most recently the rejection of Trump’s judicial nominees by Republicans, as well as dismay over Trump’s support of Roy Moore. Whether these critiques escalate to a full Republican revolt by 2020 remains to be seen. But poll numbers will certainly play a role in determining whether Republicans place their confidence in Trump again.
