Day 972: Trump’s poll numbers are so bad he’s still bragging about the ones that make him mediocre

Donald Trump’s poll numbers were upside down less than a month after his 2017 inauguration. To have a net-negative approval rating that quickly is unprecedented. Amid a frenzied, antagonistic and golf-heavy 972 days, Trump hasn’t sniffed a net-positive approval rating since.

However, that fact doesn’t stop Trump from tweeting one-off polls every time he see one that puts him anywhere close to somewhat fine. He’s already done it twice this week, both from Rasmussen Reports polls. (Rasmussen not only skews heavily conservative, and has flawed methodologies (such as not calling cell phones), their polls were off a whopping 10 points for the 2018 midterms.)

Notably, Trump has only had an approval rating at or above 50% from Rasmussen one other time since July. Generally considered a better metric of support, his “strongly approve” numbers have been beaten his “strongly disapprove” numbers just twice since March 2017. In short, even among conservative pollsters, Trump’s job performance isn’t being well-regarded by poll respondents.

His approval rating languishes behind nearly every other modern president at this same point in their presidencies. Save for a few random days against Bill Clinton, Trump has never been more popular than Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Clinton or George H.W. Bush at the same point of the presidencies.

His current true approval rating is around 42% and his net approval rating is around -12%, according to FiveThirtyEight’s daily calculation of major polls across the spectrum. That’s about where each have hovered for the vast majority of Trump’s time in office.

Trump is quite unpopular among Americans, no matter how many Rasmussen polls he cherry-picks to celebrate mediocrity.

972 days in, 490 to go

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