A new Gallup poll shows President Donald Trump’s approval rating has once again dropped below 40 percent, following a brief rise. The Gallup approval rating, which is based on a three-day rolling average, comes in last when stacked up against ratings at similar points in the presidencies of Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, according to The Hill.
As of May 15, Gallup charted Trump’s approval rating at 38 percent, representing the lowest valley in the president’s approval ratings since April 1, according to CNN. An aggregate score of multiple approval rating polls shows Trump’s approval rating at 40.9 percent. And although select polls may chart growing disapproval, not all organizations have the president at sub-40 numbers.
Rasmussen Reports and Morning Consult have charted Trump’s approval rating at 44 percent as of May 14 and 45 percent as of May 11, respectively, according to FiveThirtyEight. Despite this, ratings may reportedly have adverse effects on Republicans in the upcoming 2018 congressional elections.
“Since 1946, when presidents are above 50 percent approval, their party loses an average of 14 seats in the U.S. House in the midterm elections, compared with an average loss of 36 seats when presidents are below that mark,” said Gallup’s Jeffrey Jones. Trump’s actions as president, including the firing of FBI Director James Comey, were not met with favorable receptions from many Republican senators, according to The New York Times.
“I’m hearing more and more of them say privately that they are more and more concerned,” said Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio about Republicans’ attitudes toward Trump. “More importantly, there is a lot less fear of him than there was just a month ago.” Certain GOP senators have voiced their willingness to speak out against the president.
“There will be times when we disagree with the president,” said Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma. “And when we do, we’ll be outspoken about it.” Some GOP politicians on Capitol Hill have reported unusually difficult conditions for making headway.
“All the work that goes into getting big things done is hard enough even in the most tranquil of environments in Washington,” said Republican operative Kevin Madden of the crises that have marred Trump’s presidency. “But distractions like these can become a serious obstacle to aligning the interests of Congress.”
Other officials have cited the frequent snags as detrimental to the Republican political agenda. “It does seem like we have an upheaval, a crisis almost every day in Washington that changes the subject,” said Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine during a May 11 interview.
Republican members of Congress have expressed their opposition to the president on a spectrum of different issues, including funding Trump’s proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall, budget cuts to drug control programs and the abandonment of NAFTA.
“If you cancel NAFTA, you harm the economy of my state,” said Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Fellow Republican Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake elaborated that canceling participation in NAFTA could hurt international relations in more ways than one.
“Our trade relationship with Mexico is a positive, and not just in an economic sense, but in terms of security as well,” said Flake.
Sources: Gallup, CNN, The New York Times, The Hill, FiveThirtyEight
Sassy Liberty