Low Approval Ratings Continue for Trump, Polls Show
Quinnipiac poll pegs president's approval rating at 35 percent, while Gallup says it is at 39 percent
American voters, by a wide margin, continue to disapprove of the job President Donald Trump is doing in his first months in the White House. Quinnipiac University reported Tuesday that its recent survey of nearly 1,200 voters showed Trump's approval rating at 35 percent, while 57 percent of those surveyed disapproved of his performance. The latter figure was up a percentage point from the university's most recent polling two weeks ago. Quinnipiac said Republican voters, by 79 percent to 14 percent, viewed the Republican president favorably. But the poll said that by wide margins overall, men, women, Democrats and independent voters all disapproved of Trump's first 10 weeks in office. The survey said voters gave the 70-year-old real estate mogul-turned-politician high marks for being "a strong person" and "intelligent." But by large margins, the poll showed that voters thought he was not honest, did not have good leadership skills, did not care about average Americans, was not level-headed and did not share their values. "President Donald Trump continues to struggle, even among his most loyal supporters," said Quinnipiac pollster Tim Malloy. "Many of them would be hard-pressed to see even a sliver of silver lining in this troubling downward spiral." Separately, the Gallup Poll, which tracks voter sentiment on a three-day rolling average, said Tuesday that its latest surveys showed Trump with a 39 percent approval rating, with 55 percent of respondents disapproving of his performance. Both the Quinnipiac and Gallup approval ratings are unusually low for the start of an American presidency. U.S. voters usually give their leaders a honeymoon period and high marks at the outset of their four-year terms. But in his first months in office, Trump has endured two major setbacks. He failed to repeal and replace, as he had promised, national health care reforms that former President Barack Obama viewed as his signature legislative achievement. Also, courts have blocked Trump's efforts to impose bans targeting travel to the U.S. from several Muslim-majority countries where terrorist attacks have occurred.