Trump’s Approval Rating Is Falling Like a Rock in Every Poll…Just in Time for the Midterms

By Shane Ryan  |  September 11, 2018 | 11:38am
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Trump’s Approval Rating Is Falling Like a Rock in Every Poll…Just in Time for the Midterms
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This headline from CNN is funny for a few reasons:

It’s not just CNN’s poll. All polling shows Trump’s approval rating dropping.

It’s written by Harry Enten, formerly of 538, so it has a wonk-ish purpose, but it’s hard not to read it as an apologia of sorts. It’s practically screaming, “see! We’re not fake news! Everybody’s saying it!”

But it’s also true, and that’s also comical, because it means the Republicans are even more screwed ahead of November’s midterms. It’s not just that Trump’s approval ratings languishes in the mid-30s to low-40s in every poll; it’s that it keeps going down, no matter who does the asking.

Enten compiled eight polls, and they don’t paint a pretty picture:

In the latest average, Trump’s approval rating is about 38% in eight polls from ABC News/Washington Post, CNN, Gallup, IBD/TIPP, the Kaiser Family Foundation, Quinnipiac University, Selzer & Co. and Suffolk University.

If we just took an average of the last polls by these organizations completed August 27 or earlier, Trump’s approval rating stood at 41%.

Enten further points out that this decline is remarkable when you consider the fact that Trump’s approval rating has basically been the same since he took office. That follows—we’re an insanely partisan and polarized country right now, and it’s clear from the millions of “parachuting into Trump country” articles in the mainstream press that absolutely nothing this guy does can dissuade his supporters.

But apparently something has changed. Maybe it was the Times op-ed confirming that he’s an imminent danger who has to be sabotaged by his own staff, maybe it was the similar details from Woodward’s book, or maybe it’s just an accumulation. In any case, it bodes poorly for Republicans, who probably need Trump to retain something like a 45% approval rating to have even odds of maintaining control of the House.

 
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