Trump has at least 50 percent approval in 17 states. Together, they have just 102 Electoral College votes.

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published 24 February 2019

President Trump closed a busy morning on Twitter Sunday with a post boasting of his national approval rating:

He was apparently referring to a Rasmussen Reports poll from Feb. 11 which did indeed put the president's approval rating at 52 percent. Since then, however, nine subsequent Rasmussen polls have seen it drop back to 49 percent, and the RealClearPolitics average of nine separate surveys — including polls from Rasmussen and Fox News — puts Trump's approval at just 44 percent, with 53 percent disapproval.

Looking ahead to 2020, measuring presidential approval at the state level may be the more profitable exercise. Gallup poll results published Friday show Trump has an approval rating of 50 percent or higher in 17 states, which together have just 102 of 538 Electoral College votes:

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In another 16 states, Trump's approval is 40 percent or lower, and their combined Electoral College vote is 201. To win a second term, Trump would need 270 votes.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.