Even Trump's favorite approval poll is flashing red

(Image credit: Alex Wong / Getty Images)

published 14 January 2019

President Trump's approval rating is not in great shape — even in the one poll he's known to turn to for good news.

Trump's approval rating is at 43 percent in Rasmussen's latest poll, with his disapproval rating at 55 percent. This is the worst Rasmussen showing the president has had in a full year; his approval rating was last at 43 percent in January 2018. Trump tends to hover much closer to 50 percent or more on Rasmussen, a fact he is typically quick to point out on Twitter even when other polls put him below 40 percent.

Among the likely voters surveyed, 32 percent strongly approve of Trump compared to 38 percent who strongly approved of him back in October. This number has been much lower before, though, staying below 30 percent through much of fall 2017. The percentage of likely voters who strongly disapprove of his performance has risen to 46 percent, though, the highest number it has reached on Rasmussen since July 2018.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

This poll is hardly an outlier, as FiveThirtyEight, which compiles findings from a wide variety of pollsters, shows that Trump's approval rating is trending downward and is 40.7 percent on average, with his disapproval rating at 54.3 percent. This is the worst shape he's been in on FiveThirtyEight's tracker in four months, and it comes amid a partial government shutdown that most Americans blame on the president.

Explore More

Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox