Trump approval rating: So low it has to go up? Don't bet on it.
Trump hasn't hit 50% to date. He could be the first president in the history of polling to never earn the support of a majority of Americans.
Though decline is the norm, it is not universal. In terms of public approval, there are two categories of recent presidents: “sliders” and “risers.”
The sliders (by far the larger group) achieve their highest approval rating on arrival in the White House or sometime during their first year in office. Then they fall. That pattern describes Kennedy, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.*
Four of our recent leaders — Eisenhower, Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Clinton — are risers who earned their highest approval number sometime after their first year in office.*
Trump, thus far, is highly unusual because he has never had a Gallup job approval number above 50%. He began his administration with approval in the high 40s and has since slipped into the mid-30s. If he continues to be a slider, he will be the first president in the history of national polling to never earn the support of a majority of Americans — a remarkable distinction.*
Will the Trump presidency see better economic numbers, an overseas crisis that does not become a controversial conflict, or favorable resolution of current investigations? Perhaps. But a more likely prediction is that Trump, like most presidents, will experience a decline from his initial approval numbers.*
That would raise*an awkward question: how low can Trump go when his current job approval is weaker than any we have ever seen six months into a new administration?*
How do you move downstairs when you already live in the basement?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opin...never-recover-robert-strong-column/547134001/