Trump’s new approval ratings are historically bad ahead of November midterms

US president Donald Trump has proven he pays attention to his approval ratings, what with him taking to Truth Social last week to claim his it was at 59 per cent, when actually, that was what many polls were reporting was his disapproval rating.

And now, CNN has reported that Trump’s net approval ratings are “the worst this century for a president [at] this point in his second term”, pointing to the average of CNBC and Washington Post polls which have Trump on -22 points, compared to Barack Obama on -8 points and George W. Bush on -20 points.

The news channel’s chief data analyst Harry Enten explained on Monday: “George W. Bush, in the middle of the Iraq war, when that was going south, he was at -20 points. So at this point, Donald John Trump is in fact holding the record for the lowest net approval rating for a president in his second term, at this point in the second term, of any president in the 21st century.”

He then turned his attention to independents in particular, finding that net approval with this specific group for Trump at this point in a president’s second term is -45 points, worse than Richard Nixon who “was about to leave office because of Watergate”.

“Donald John Trump, the worst ever rating – net approval rating – with independents at this point in a second term,” Enten concluded.

All of this comes ahead of the crucial November midterms, and on Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt raised concerns when she refused to answer a question on accepting those election results when they come around.

Responding to the question from CBS News’ Ed O’Keefe, ahead of Trump giving a speech on elections later the same day, Leavitt said: “Look, Ed, you should tune into the president’s speech tonight before you jump ahead to conclusions about what’s actually in the speech.”

Yikes.

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