We’re almost at 100 days. What is Trump’s approval rating?
The countdown is almost over. Come Saturday, President Trump will have been in office for 100 days.
The 45th president arrived at the White House with quite a to-do list. Among the things he hoped to accomplish during the first 100 days in office were: tax reform, repealing and replacing Obamacare, investing in infrastructure and ending illegal immigration. None of these have been checked off yet.
As his first three months in office come to a close, Trump’s approval numbers are coming in at historic lows. A new Marketplace-Edison Research Poll found that 51 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy, while 42.7 percent approve.
These numbers align with other polls released this week. A new Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll found that 54 percent Americans disapprove of Trump’s performance so far compared with 40 percent who approve. Another poll conducted for Washington Post-ABC News found that the president’s approval rating stands at 42 percent, compared to 53 percent disapproval.
| Quiz: Find out your economic anxiety level |
| The word ‘Trump’ may be shifting our ideological attitudes |
| You think Washington has ‘forgotten’ you — and it doesn’t matter what party you’re in |
One of the interesting findings in our poll was that the economic anxiety for most Americans declined after the elections. It was not that most Americans were doing much better financially — almost 40 percent said they were doing about the same and 16 percent said they were doing worse than they were a year ago. However, an even smaller group of respondents — 15.4 percent — said they were afraid they might lose their job in the near future. Just 8.9 percent said they are afraid they’d lose their job to an immigrant.
Mainly, our poll shows that Americans are anxious about the possibility of losing their health care. About four in five Americans are worried about health care, with 49 percent worrying a lot and 33 percent worrying a little.
“We found that the level of anxiety about health care is exceptionally high,” Larry Rosin, president of Edison Research, told us Monday morning. “A huge majority of people say they worry, at least sometimes, about health care — about it wrecking them financially, about being unable to find insurance or being able to pay for things. So of all the reasons that people have economic anxiety in the states, it turns out health care is probably the single-biggest driver. More so than even jobs.”
Trying to unsuccessfully tackle repeal and replacement of Obamacare early on in his presidency might have cost Trump his honeymoon period — the early period in office when U.S. presidents typically enjoy higher approval ratings. Out of the last dozen presidents, only Trump and President Gerald Ford saw their approval numbers come in below 50 percent, according to the Washington Post. President Barack Obama, on the other hand, enjoyed a 69 percent approval rating during his first 100 days in office, and President George W. Bush enjoyed a 63 percent approval rating.
President Trump took to Twitter on Monday to dispute the findings of the Washington Post-ABC and the Wall Street Journal-NBC polls.
The two fake news polls released yesterday, ABC & NBC, while containing some very positive info, were totally wrong in General E. Watch!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 24, 2017
Take our economic anxiety quiz to see how you compare to the national average.
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
