
Donald Trump is celebrating a rare poll showing positive approval ratings.
The president has generally struggled with approval ratings around 40 per cent, no matter what’s been happening in the news.
It doesn’t seem to matter whether Trump’s stuck in the middle of a government shutdown or giving out a tax cut, Americans have been very consistent with how they feel about him.
So he was happy to finally get some “good” news – yesterday, Trump found a poll that showed half of the country approved of his presidency.
There’s one big problem though… 50 per cent is not a good approval rating, it’s average.
@realDonaldTrump Isn’t that the same as a 50% DISapproval rating? https://t.co/njzzVVVAnH— ElElegante101 (@ElElegante101) 1560207751
Multiple past presidents have had approval ratings above 70 per cent in their first term (George W Bush, John F Kennedy, Jimmy Carter) and Trump’s 50 per cent rating comes from only pollster – Rasmussen Reports.
Other polls from the last week have put Trump at 42 per cent (YouGov) or 45 per cent (HarrisX).
More importantly, the Rasmussen polls have consistently been an outlier in showing support for Trump, generally putting him between 45-50 per cent approval while polls on average put him at just 42 per cent approval.
So okay, maybe the poll is good relatively for Trump… but it’s not a good rating.
Find someone who loves you as much as Donald Trump loves mediocre poll numbers from a single, sympathetic pollster https://t.co/lTD2hHx8jX— Robert Maguire (@Robert Maguire) 1560208432
@realDonaldTrump 1. This is inflated 2. Even inflated it's still very low 3. You made a meme and everything to brag about 50% 4. SAD— Amee Vanderpool (@Amee Vanderpool) 1560208035
@realDonaldTrump TRUMP: Good news! Half of you hate me!— Mr. Newberger (@Mr. Newberger) 1560212228
https://t.co/MSaCyDBOyz— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1560212675
When the best you can do is only having 50 per cent of the country approving of your work, you're probably not doing a good job.