New polling on that first year of Trump shows that the President has a lot of work to do in bringing the country together. There are just 12 states where Trump's job approval rating was above 50% for the entirety of 2017. That pales in comparison to the 41 states where then-President Barack Obama was above 50% approval for his first year on office.
Those numbers are reflective of two things:
1. Trump's overall job approval number nationwide was never over 50% in Gallup polling at any point in 2017. Trump's high point was 366 days ago when he was at 45% approval and 47% disapproval. The last time Trump's approval was over 40% in Gallup polling was at the end of May 2017 -- when he was at 41%. Trump averaged the lowest job approval number -- 38% -- of any president ever in his first year in office in Gallup data. At the end of 2009, Obama's approval rating was at 57%.
2. Trump's most loyal voters -- and states -- are staying with him. His job approval was highest in places like West Virginia, North Dakota and Wyoming where he won by huge margins in 2016. (One interesting note: Democratic senators are running for re-election in both West Virginia and North Dakota this fall.) Many of those states are also less populated.
Viewed broadly, these numbers should worry Republicans -- especially those on the House side hoping to hold onto their majority after the 2018 election.
Dammit, of course my state is one of the twelve.
I really love the fact that Trump will never enjoy the popularity that President Obama enjoyed.
Nor will he ever see a second term.
Source http://ift.tt/2rWvlLg
