How popular is Donald Trump? Latest approval ratings as polls shows US president remains steady
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Donald Trump's presidential approval ratings remain steady despite the coronavirus crisis, according to The Telegraph's polls tracker.
The tracker, which takes an average of the last 10 polls, puts Mr Trump's approval rating at 45 per cent, while 53 per cent disapprove of the way the president is doing his job.
Donald Trump's term has been packed with controversy and intrigue but, underneath it all, few people seem to have really changed their minds about America's 45th president.
His approval rating quickly slumped in the chaotic days after assuming office, with Trump achieving a majority disapproval rating in a record of just eight days. Three years in and facing a re-election campaign in November, he is far less popular than previous presidents at this stage of a presidency - but overall approval has generally remained above 40 per cent.
Soaring Covid-19 cases and a rising death toll have done little in shifting the dial on the Republican's popularity among the American public.
And the president has suggested a delay to the looming November election on the basis of the pandemic and mail-in-vote concerns.
Majority disapproval reached in record time - but Trump base remains steady
Historically, it has usually taken American presidents hundreds of days before they reach a majority disapproval rating.
This has been the case for the last five presidents – with Bill Clinton lasting a record 573 days before more than 50 per cent of Americans disapproved of his presidency.
But Donald Trump smashed this record after surging into the White House on a wave of anti-establishment anger. It took just eight days for him to gain a majority disapproval rating, according to Gallup polling, with 51 per cent of Americans saying they disapproved of the president on 28 January 28 2017.
Since then, Trump has failed to push through healthcare reform, introduced policies that have led to thousands of foreign children being separated from parents after entering America, and became the third US president in history to be impeached.
All of these events have helped ensure that Trump's approval ratings have remained below 50 per cent. He is the first president since Truman in 1945, when Gallup started tracking this data, to remain so low nationally.
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But Trump - a president who was able to win in 2016 despite losing the national popular vote - will be buoyed by the fact that his approval ratings have remained steady since his election.
Since the start of 2019, Trump's average approval rating in The Telegraph's poll tracker has never fallen out of the range of 40 to 45 per cent, while his disapproval rating has stuck stubbornly between the range of 51 to 56 per cent.
He can point to the fact that the American economy has been growing over the last few years, he has secured "emergency" funding to start building a new wall on the US-Mexico border and has taken strong - albeit controversial - action on Iran after the fatal airstrike on Iranian Major General Qassim Soleimani.
These will form some of the key points of defence when Trump officially takes to the campaign trail, as he seeks to retain his base and take on the new Democratic nominee.
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The Telegraph's poll tracker takes an average of the last 10 polls in order to take a full picture of the broad movements in the polling environment and not put too much weight on individual polls. Polls used are nationally representative with adequate sample sizes, and are sourced from Real Clear Politics.
