Donald Trump approval rating at 70-year low
US - Donald Trump’s approval rating has plunged in a national poll, published last weekend, that charts Americans’ perceptions of a stalling domestic policy agenda and declining leadership on the world stage.
The Washington Post/ABC News poll, which put Trump’s six-month approval rating at a historic 70-year low, came amid mounting controversy over Russian interference in the 2016 election. It emerged that Trump’s campaign committee made a payment to the legal firm representing the president’s eldest son almost two weeks before a meeting between Trump Jr and a Russian lawyer promising compromising information on Hillary Clinton was made public. Trump now has a 36% approval rating, down six points from his first 100 days’ rating. The poll found that 48% believed America’s leadership in the world is weaker than before the billionaire took office, while support for Republican plans to replace Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act was at just 24% compared with 50% who support the former president’s signature healthcare policy.
Trump, who has spent the weekend at his private golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, attempted to downplay the poll’s findings. On Sunday morning he used Twitter to claim, incorrectly, that “almost 40% [approval] is not bad at this time” and that the poll in question had been “just about the most inaccurate around election time!”. In fact, the Washington Post/ ABC poll came close to predicting the popular vote on election day which Hillary Clinton won by 2.5m ballots, Trump taking the White House in the electoral college and no president has suffered such low ratings at this early stage in their tenure since such polling began in 1945.
(Theguardian.com)