Trump’s 54.2 disapproval rating is higher than any president in American history at this point in their term
President Donald Trump's disapproval rating is reportedly higher than any of the US presidents before him this point in the White House. More than 54 percent of Americans are reportedly dissatisfied with Trump's leadership.
Trump's 54.2 percent disapproval rating is the highest recorded rating since October 2019. The only other president to come close to the Republican leader's disapproval score was Jimmy Carter, the 39th US President, who had a disapproval rating of 52% after 1,230 days in office.
The latest figures on Trump's disapproval ratings were shared by FiveThirtyEight, an opinion poll analysis website, which released the numbers on Tuesday, June 2. Trump's approval ratings were also shared by the website, which currently stands at 42.6%.
FiveThirtyEight's editor-in-chief, Nate Silver, also tweeted the figures, writing: "Trump’s disapproval rating has been on the rise again, now up to 54%. There were some presidents with lower approval ratings to this point in their first terms, but no president had a higher *disapproval* rating than Trump now has."
Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, after 1,230 days in the White House, had a 47.1% disapproval rating and a 47.3% approval rating. While former President George W Bush had a 49.9% disapproval rating and President Bill Clinton had a 37.5% disapproval rating.
Trump's disapproval ratings were released at a time when thousands in the country were left unimpressed by the Republican's response to the ongoing coronavirus health crisis. His response to the George Floyd death protests has also garnered immense criticism.
According to multiple polls, President Trump seems to have a lower approval rating than his political rival and the presumptive Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden ahead of the November elections.
Trump recently took to Twitter to slam a Fox News poll, which showed Biden ahead of him by eight points. Trump tweeted: "@FoxNews should fire their Fake Pollster. Never had a good Fox Poll! […] Why doesn’t @FoxNews put up the CNBC POLL or the (believe it or not!) @CNN Poll?"
A survey conducted by CBS News, from May 29 to June 1, found that at this point a majority of Americans believe that President Trump's handling of the George Floyd protest has been more divisive than unifying. Twitter, last month, flagged one of the president's inflammatory tweets where he stated "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." The tweet was flagged for violating the platform’s standards against glorifying violence.
The CBS poll showed that only 35 percent of the respondents believed that Trump's tweets were to unite Americans, while 63% disagreed on this. The president's response, particularly to the protests in Minneapolis, received 49% disapproval and 32% approval.
The nationwide protests began after four Minneapolis police officers allegedly involved in Floyd's brutal death were fired on May 26 after a video of the incident went viral on social media. The footage showed Floyd pleading with officers as one of them, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck while the 46-year-old told them to let him stand because he could not breathe.
The clip showed Floyd pleading with the officer to allow him to breathe and a few minutes later he became unconscious. Floyd's death has sparked massive protests and unrest in Minneapolis and across the country. Chauvin, 44, was arrested last week on charges of third-degree murder and manslaughter.