Honestly, it shouldn't really matter whether or not the president has high approval ratings. The president is elected to lead, and sometimes that means doing things that are right, even if they're unpopular. And since the Constitution has nothing to say about polling, an unpopular president has the exact same power as a popular president.
But appearances do matter. Other elected officials will oppose the president if they see his policies are unpopular, and a deeply unpopular president is usually much more cautious. These factors both explain why no unpopular president has ever managed to pass a big reform or change in modern American history.
And so it's significant that -- as mentioned on our Victories page -- Trump's approval is dropping. He started off as the most unpopular president ever inaugurated, probably because he lost the popular vote by three million votes. This is despite the fact that it's much more common for new presidents to get a bump as everyone watches them go through all the pageantry of the process. But rather than a bump, Trump's approval has actually dropped during his first week in office.
There are six major pollsters doing presidential approval right now. You can see the specific numbers here, but basically three of the six have Trump with negative net approval (that is, more people disapprove than approve), two have slim positive net approval, and one has +10 approval (55% approve, 44% disapprove). That last might be good news for Trump, but that pollster (Rasmussen) has historically favored Republicans, skewing their numbers up a few points... and they had Obama with +23 at this same point.
All this is to say: President Trump is historically unpopular, and is getting less popular. Most people didn't want him as president. Some of his voters thought he was exaggerating about some of his plans -- that they were a "negotiating tactic." And some of the voters who might approve of his intentions are upset at how incompetently he's enacting his plans.
It's working. Marching, calling, emailing, and speaking truth to power... it's working.
A majority of Americans are in the resistance. Keep it up.
But appearances do matter. Other elected officials will oppose the president if they see his policies are unpopular, and a deeply unpopular president is usually much more cautious. These factors both explain why no unpopular president has ever managed to pass a big reform or change in modern American history.
And so it's significant that -- as mentioned on our Victories page -- Trump's approval is dropping. He started off as the most unpopular president ever inaugurated, probably because he lost the popular vote by three million votes. This is despite the fact that it's much more common for new presidents to get a bump as everyone watches them go through all the pageantry of the process. But rather than a bump, Trump's approval has actually dropped during his first week in office.
There are six major pollsters doing presidential approval right now. You can see the specific numbers here, but basically three of the six have Trump with negative net approval (that is, more people disapprove than approve), two have slim positive net approval, and one has +10 approval (55% approve, 44% disapprove). That last might be good news for Trump, but that pollster (Rasmussen) has historically favored Republicans, skewing their numbers up a few points... and they had Obama with +23 at this same point.
All this is to say: President Trump is historically unpopular, and is getting less popular. Most people didn't want him as president. Some of his voters thought he was exaggerating about some of his plans -- that they were a "negotiating tactic." And some of the voters who might approve of his intentions are upset at how incompetently he's enacting his plans.
It's working. Marching, calling, emailing, and speaking truth to power... it's working.
A majority of Americans are in the resistance. Keep it up.
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