New poll shows Trump with historically low approval rating

Politico.com

Just 39 percent of Americans approve of the job President Donald Trump is doing in office, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Friday shows, the latest in a string of surveys showing Trump with historically low poll numbers one year into his first term.

Trump’s 39 percent approval rating is the lowest such number the poll has found for any modern president after one year in office, NBC News reported. The president’s approval rating dipped 2 points, from 41 percent, relative to last month’s NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.

After successfully shepherding a package of tax cuts and reforms into law last month, Trump’s administration has been mired in controversy for much of January thus far. He reportedly referred to certain Caribbean and African nations with a vulgar term during bipartisan negotiations over immigration policy and the government, controlled by Republicans in both houses of Congress and the White House, is on the verge of a possible shutdown if funding legislation is not passed Friday.

Fifty-seven percent of respondents said they disapprove of the president’s job performance, including 51 percent who said they “strongly disapprove.” Seventy-eight percent of Republicans said they approve of Trump’s job performance, but the president failed to clear 50 percent with any other demographic group. Forty-six percent of white respondents and 45 percent of male respondents said they approved of his handling of the presidency, while just 33 percent of women, 26 percent of Hispanics and 8 percent of African-Americans said the same.

Asked about the president’s accomplishments during his first year in office, 20 percent said the state of the economy and low unemployment was Trump’s greatest success, followed by “putting America first,” which was the choice of 13 percent of respondents. Ten percent each said the president’s recently signed tax legislation and military successes against Islamic State militants.

Thirty-seven percent said none of the listed accomplishments elicited positive feelings about Trump.

In response to a question about words that best describe the president’s first year in office, 38 percent responded with “disgusted” and 24 percent said “scared,” the top two results. “Hopeful,” at 23 percent, was third, followed by “proud” at 12 percent and “angry” at 11.

The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll was conducted from Jan. 13-17, contacting 900 adults nationwide via landlines and cell phones. The margin of error was plus-or-minus 3.3 points