Trump soars to new low in presidential unpopularity

Donald Trump has long been a polarizing figure, eliciting strong feelings of either adoration or disdain. Recent actions, however, have caused a notable decline in his popularity.

It's worth noting that this data was collected before Trump echoed many of Putin's talking points regarding the Ukraine war. Given this context, one can't help but speculate that his approval ratings may have worsened even further since then!

Recent polls have shown that Trump is the second-most unpopular president in modern history, just slightly trailing behind himself in his own previous term!

The polling aggregator firm 538 revealed that Trump’s initial approval rating sat at just 7+ points upon entering office. To put that into perspective, 49% of US adults approved of the President once he was back in the White House while 41% disapproved of him. 

The British news outlet Telegraph pointed out that Trump’s approval upon entering office was the second lowest of any new president since the end of the Second World War. 

Trump was only beaten by himself in 2016 when he entered office with an extremely low approval rating of +3.6. Just 44.6% of Americans approved of the President the first he entered office, far worse than Barack Obama or Joe Biden. 

Obama entered office with a 63.3% approval. 16.5% of Americans disapproved of Obama upon entering office, giving him an outstanding +46.9% net approval rating. This is far higher than Trump’s past and present net approval ratings. 

Even Biden entered office on sturdier footing with the American people than Trump has in his second term. Biden entered office with a net approval rating of 21.8%. He saw a majority of the country approve of him at 53.5% compared to 31.7% who disapproved. 

“While it does seem Trump is getting a honeymoon to some extent, his numbers are still not impressive by historical standards,” Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said according to The Telegraph. 

So how did the other recent US Presidents fair upon entering office compared to Donald Trump? The Telegraph included a chart of the approval numbers for every President upon entering office since 1952, and Trump’s figures didn't look too good in comparison to his competition. Let’s take a look at that list now.

Elected: 1952

Approve: 68.0%

Disapprove: 7.0%

Net Approval: +61

Elected: 1960

Approve: 72.0%

Disapprove: 6.0%

Net Approval: +66

Elected: 1968

Approve: 59.0%

Disapprove: 5.0%

Net Approval: +54

Elected: 1976

Approve: 66.0%

Disapprove: 8.0%

Net Approval: +58

Elected: 1980

Approve: 51.0%

Disapprove: 13.0%

Net Approval: +38

Elected: 1988

Approve: 61.5%

Disapprove: 12.3%

Net Approval: +49.3

Elected: 1992

Approve: 54.4%

Disapprove: 20.3%

Net Approval: +34.1

Elected: 2000

Approve: 44.9%

Disapprove: 17.0%

Net Approval: +29.9

Elected: 2008

Approve: 63.3%

Disapprove: 16.5%

Net Approval: +46.9

Elected: 2016

Approve: 44.6%

Disapprove: 41.4% 

Net Approval: +3.2

Elected: 2020

Approve: 53.5%

Disapprove: 31.7%

Net Approval: +21.8

Elected: 2024

Approve: 49.8%

Disapprove: 42.8%

Net Approval: +7

While past approval rating numbers may show that recent presidents have enjoyed relatively large approval upon entering office, they also reveal that Trump could be a truly uniquely divisive figure in American politics, or that US politics today, in general, are far more partisan than in previous decades. 

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