First Hundred Days of Trump Turn Historically Low Ratings

According to a poll conducted by ABC News, Donald Trump is the first president in 80 years to have an approval rating as low as 39% (which is down 6% from the last poll in late February disapproval rating of 55%) and a disapproval rating of 55% at the standard first-100-days evaluation. Further, the previous all-time-low in polls, which track as far back as 1945, was during Trump’s first term in 2017, where his approval rating was 42%.

Although as informed voters we must be wary of partisan news sources, this poll was conducted in a non-partisan manner, interviewing 2,464 American adults with political values falling all across the spectrum. Additionally, ABC News itself tends to swing both ways; it’s historically been on the Lean Right side of AllSides (media bias tracker), but has swung to Lean Left in the past year or so.

Perhaps the most gratifying statistic to emerge from this poll is that 72% of those polled disagree with Trump’s economic policy thus far and believe that it’s going to cause or is already causing a recession in America. Fifty-three percent said that it’s gotten worse since Trump took office in January for the second time, and 41% said that their personal finances have worsened in regards to the economy.

The most disagreed-with policies of his thus far have been his impact on the stock market (67%) and the tariffs on imported goods (64%). It’s important to note here that Trump’s number-one campaign promise, which was the reason many largely uninformed Americans voted for him, was that he would fix the economy and make things cheaper in the country. In December, post-election (of course), he said that it would be “very hard” to bring down the price of goods such as groceries and gas.

Fifty-three percent disagreed with his beliefs and actions in regards to immigration and 67% object his plans to end birthright citizenship, which has existed in America since the ratification of the 14th Amendment in 1868. Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed believe that his closure of federal agencies and mass layoffs in departments such as the Park Service is a bridge too far, as are his actions against his political opponents. A whopping 77% oppose cuts in federal funding for medical research (some of which is LGBTQ+-directed, such as redirecting queer-positive research to a study on “trans regret”), and 66% disapprove of closing the Department of Education.

Sixty-two percent of those surveyed said that they didn’t think the administration is respecting the rule of law—This is objectively true, as he has signed 141 executive orders in his first 100 days in office, many of which completely override existing legislature. Fifty-six percent said that he’s acted beyond the powers presidents are allotted (cough, cough, dictator behavior, cough).

Perhaps most importantly to remember; 55% said that they don’t believe that Trump and his administrations actually have the best interests of citizens of the United States at heart. Perhaps if that majority of people realizing that Trump and his cronies don’t actually care about us at all, and care even less the more marginalized we become, we can make a change.

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