Donald Trump on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention. (Getty)
Donald Trump’s approval rating is lower than that of any president-elect in recent history, a new Gallup poll found.
According to Gallup, 55 percent of Americans say they have an unfavorable opinion of Donald Trump. This is almost 20 points higher than the unfavorable rating of any other president-elect going back as far as Gallup has asked this question. Forty-two percent of Americans said they have a favorable opinion of Trump.
In the days following the 2008 election, 27 percent of Americans told Gallup they had a unfavorable view of Barack Obama, compared to 68 percent who had a favorable view. After Al Gore’s mid-December concession in the 2000 election, 36 percent of Americans had an unfavorable view of George W. Bush, while 59 percent had a favorable view. And after the 1992 election, 35 percent of Americans had an unfavorable view of Bill Clinton, compared to 58 percent who had a favorable view.
Trump’s favorable rating has, however, increased since the days before the election. Prior to November 8th, just 34 percent of Americans said they had a favorable view of Trump, but that has now risen to 42 percent. Gallup has actually been asking Americans how they feel about Donald Trump for years, and his approval rating right now is the highest it has been since 2011.
Trump’s biggest post-election approval rating bump came from Republicans. Before the election, 71 percent of Republicans had a favorable view of Trump, while today 82 percent do. Trump still has a much lower approval rating from his own party than any other recent president-elect, though. After the 2000 election, 93 percent of Republicans had a favorable opinion of George W. Bush.
Trump received a much smaller bump from Democrats, five percent of whom had a favorable view of Trump before the election compared to 10 percent today. Gallup notes that Democrats dislike Trump far more than the opposition party has disliked any other president in recent history. Only 10 percent of Democrats have a positive opinion of Trump, whereas 31 percent of Democrats had a positive opinion of George W. Bush after the 2000 election. And on the other side of the aisle, 35 percent of Republicans viewed Obama favorably after the 2008 election, and 31 percent of them viewed Bill Clinton favorably after the 1992 election.
Another interesting post-election poll came from The Washington Post/Schar School, and it suggests that Trump might not have the mandate he would expect considering that his party won the presidency, the House and the Senate. Just 29 percent of Americans say that Trump has a mandate to carry out his agenda, whereas 59 percent said he should compromise with Democrats. For comparison, in 2008, 50 percent of Americans said Barack Obama had a mandate, and in 2000, 41 percent said George W. Bush had a mandate.
When asked to pick one word to describe how they felt about the election results, the most common word those polled chose was “disappointed.” Among Clinton voters, the most common word was “disappointed” followed by “shocked/surprised,” “scared” and “disgusted.” Among Trump voters, the most common word was “happy,” followed by “good,” “great” and “excited.”