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The difference between Donald Trump and Barack Obama in a single statistic

Picture:
Picture:
left: Sean Gallup/Getty Images, right: Zach Gibson/Getty Images

President Donald Trump’s average job approval rating for his first six months in office is as low as 38 per cent.

Gallup monitors President’s job approval numbers on a weekly basis.

Their figures show that six months into the job, President Trump is much, much less popular than President Barack Obama ever was.

Comparing the first six months

In his first 23 weeks in office, President Obama’s lowest approval rating was 59 per cent.

His other important numbers from the first six months:

  • Average approval 63 per cent.
  • Highest disapproval 34 per cent.
  • Highest net approval rating 54 per cent.
  • Lowest net approval rating 25 per cent.

By contrast here are President Trump’s numbers:

  • Average approval 38 per cent.
  • Highest disapproval 58 per cent.
  • Highest net approval -2 per cent, (27 points below the lowest net of his predecessor).
  • Lowest net approval -21 per cent.

At no point in President Trump’s first sixth months in office has he achieved a higher approval rating or a lower disapproval score than President Obama in his first sixth months.

Obama never, ever, sunk so low

CNBC journalist John Harwood has pointed out that Obama never received below 38 per cent, ever.

And he's correct.

Obama's numbers never slipped to 38 per cent approval or below.

Looking at Gallup’s archive, the lowest approval rating Obama ever earned was 40 per cent.

This low point was reached on 12 separate weeks, occurring in either 2011, 2013, or 2014.

Obama’s lowest approval net rating, throughout his eight years in the White House was -14 per cent, which happened on four separate weeks.

Donald Trump has averaged a -14.2 per cent net rating for his time in the White House, to 22 July 2017, the last available rating on Gallup.

SAD.

More: Donald Trump can't pardon himself, Obama's ethics chief says. It would also be an admission of guilt​

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