Donald Trump is exiting the White House with the lowest approval rating of his presidency, according to a recent survey by Gallup.
Only about a third of Americans—34 percent—said they approve of the job the President has done, the lowest recorded rating of his term.
Gallup also reported that Trump’s 41 percent average approval rating throughout his presidency is the lowest of any presidential term ever recorded by the opinion poll giant, scoring four points below Harry S. Truman, who since 1953 had held the lowest presidential job approval average, at 45.4 percent.
According to Gallup, Trump is also the only President since Gallup began measuring presidential job approval in 1938 not to register a 50 percent job approval rating at any point during his presidency.
 President Trump is leaving office with the lowest presidential job approval average on record. |
The latest Gallup findings, released during Trump’s last full day in office, come on the heels of a violent January 6 riot at the United States Capitol while both chambers of Congress were in the process of certifying the 2020 presidential electoral votes. That attack, which killed five, resulted in a second impeachment of the President and caused him to be deplatformed by Facebook and Twitter. Trump has not made a public appearance since and has said he won’t attend tomorrow’s nomination of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, making him the first president since 1869 not to do so.
The news also comes on the same day that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), long recognized as one of Trump’s closest allies, said the Jan. 6 attack was “provoked by the President” and that the mob of Trump loyalists who stormed the Capitol Building were “fed lies” regarding the presidential election that Trump lost.
The January Gallup poll also mentioned that, when broken out by party, Trump’s average job approval rating revealed a record 81 percent average gap between Republicans and Democrats, exceeding the prior record for party polarization under Obama by 11 points.
A Pew Research Center survey released last week similarly found Trump’s approval rating to be a record low of 29 percent. The share of voters in that poll who rated Trump’s conduct as “poor” currently stands at 62 percent, up from 54 percent who rated his conduct as “poor” in November. More than two-thirds of respondents—68 percent—additionally said they don’t want Trump to remain a major U.S. political figure.
According to a CNN/SSRS poll released today, Melania Trump will similarly leave the White House with the lowest favorability rating ever for a first lady.
Husch Blackwell Strategies has added FleishmanHillard alum Michael Slatin as a principal in its public affairs group.
Rory Cooper, a veteran Republican operative and policy specialist, has joined Teneo’s Washington office as senior managing director in its strategy & communications practice.
Brian Fallon, who served as national press secretary for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential run, is signing on next month as Vice President’s Kamala Harris’ campaign communications director.
TikTok is nothing more than a Chinese propaganda tool that poses “a grave threat to America’s national security and, in particular, impressionable children and young adults,” say two Congressmen who want the platform registered as a foreign agent.
Public Strategies Washington has added Abbie Sorrendino, a former aide to now Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
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Jan. 22, 2021, by Joe Honick
There are more studies, surveys and other commentaries than we can calculate. Furthermore, not all studies end up with similar conclusions. For example, the very idea that an election assassin like Nixon came out about the same as a hugely powerful guy like Nixon or even close to Obama...all render this survey business needing some method review. That need not suggest any less ethical effort, only method recalculation.