As Donald Trump’s White House continues to crumble under the weight of scandal and incompetence, the new president’s approval rating has fallen into the 30s.
According to a new Pew Research Center poll, a dismal 39 percent of Americans believe Trump is doing a good job, while an astonishing 56 percent disapprove of his performance.
Here’s how Trump’s disapproval number stacks up to recent presidents (Spoiler alert: It’s devastating for the new president):
February disapproval ratings in first term
Reagan 18%
Bush 13%
Clinton 25%
Bush 21%
Obama 17%To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Trump 56%https://t.co/VD4uQ9wUxh pic.twitter.com/81VHRcPjfo
— Conrad Hackett (@conradhackett) February 16, 2017
By more than 30 percentage points, Trump gets more negative ratings than any president in modern history.
In fact, even during the most difficult political tests of his presidency, Barack Obama’s approval never dipped into the 30s in the Pew poll. For Trump, it took less than a month.
When it comes to specific issues, from the economy to foreign policy, Trump’s numbers are just as bad, if not worse.
Trump gets negative marks for his handling of foreign policy, immigration, threat of terrorism https://t.co/FlkuBvWD3X pic.twitter.com/1rWmOUF8vW
— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) February 16, 2017
According to Pew, around 60 percent of Americans think Trump is untrustworthy, while even more think he is a bad communicator with a poor temperament. His unhinged press conference Thursday is unlikely to help any of these numbers.
68% of Americans say Trump isn’t even tempered, 63% say not a good communicator, 59% say not trustworthy https://t.co/33R1YIqcdd pic.twitter.com/TiR0RFHFJn
— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) February 16, 2017
At the end of the day, the president does deserve some credit. When previous presidents were able to govern for months and even years without a majority of Americans giving them net-negative ratings, Trump has been able to do it in less than a month.
It’s actually quite impressive.
And with the Russian scandal just beginning to heat up, there’s no telling how much deeper into the cellar his numbers will go.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
