Trump's approval rating is on pace to be the lowest ever among independents, Gallup poll shows
Gallup revealed Tuesday that President Trump's approval rating during his third year in office set the record for the biggest partisan gap since the pollster began its records.
Republicans and Democrats are dramatically split — 89 percent of Republicans think Trump is doing a good job, compared to just 7 percent of Democrats. That 82-point difference is the largest ever, beating out the 79-point margin following Trump's second year in office. But what about the third subset, those pesky independents?
Trump's numbers don't crater among independents like they do with Democrats, and have improved over the last year — his 38 percent approval rating among non-affiliated respondents is higher than his 35 percent average rating to date, but they're still historically low. In the post-World War II era every other president has reached the 40 percent threshold among independents, with the lowest mark going to Jimmy Carter's 42 percent.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
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.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Overall, Trump checked in with a 42 percent approval rating during year no. 3, an uptick from his first and second years. It's not far behind the numbers averaged by former presidents like Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan at this point in their tenures, but it's still one of the lowest three-year averages during a first term since World War II. Only Carter's 37.4 percent trails. The poll was conducted over the phone from a random sample of 4,560 adults living in the U.S. by Gallup between Oct. 14, 2019 and Jan. 16, 2020. The margin of error is 2 percentage points. Read more at Gallup.
-
Breaking news: the rise of ‘smash hit’ rage roomsUnder the Radar Paying to vent your anger on furniture is all the rage but experts are sceptical
-
Did markets’ ‘Sell America’ trade force Trump to TACO on Greenland?Today’s Big Question Investors navigate a suddenly uncertain global economy
-
‘We know how to make our educational system world-class again’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
ICE memo OKs forcible entry without warrantSpeed Read The secret memo was signed last May
-
Halligan quits US attorney role amid court pressureSpeed Read Halligan’s position had already been considered vacant by at least one judge
-
Can anyone stop Donald Trump?Today's Big Question US president ‘no longer cares what anybody thinks’ so how to counter his global strongman stance?
-
How Iran protest death tolls have been politicisedIn the Spotlight Regime blames killing of ‘several thousand’ people on foreign actors and uses videos of bodies as ‘psychological warfare’ to scare protesters
-
Trump’s Greenland ambitions push NATO to the edgeTalking Points The military alliance is facing its worst-ever crisis
-
Venezuela: Does Trump have a plan?Feature Oil and democracy are both on the table
-
Trump ties Greenland threat to failed Nobel Peace bidSpeed Read ‘I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace,’ Trump said
-
The Board of Peace: Donald Trump’s ‘alternative to the UN’The Explainer Body set up to oversee reconstruction of Gaza could have broader mandate to mediate other conflicts and create a ‘US-dominated alternative to the UN’
