How Popular Is President Trump? Approval Rating Falls Below That Of George W Bush, New Poll Shows

President Donald Trump may have won just under 46 percent of the popular vote, but 39 percent of voters have approved of his handling of the nation’s highest office so far, the most recent Pew Research Center approval rating poll indicated. By contrast, a full 56 percent, disapproved.

The poll, for which the Princeton Survey Research Associates International surveyed 1,503 adults between Feb. 7 and Sunday, revealed a wide disparity in approval of the new president along partisan and demographic divides. Trump's approval rating also fell several percentage points lower than recent polling results from the Des Moines Register/Mediacom and Reuters/Ipsos.

Only 9 percent of Democrats, for example, approved of Trump’s work in his first three weeks and 88 percent disapproved. That was compared to 90 percent approval and 6 percent disapproval among Republicans, as well as 35 percent approval and 59 percent disapproval among independents.

More white people — 49 percent — approved of his handling of the presidency than disapproved — 46 percent — while 14 percent of African-American respondents and 17 percent of Hispanic respondents believed he was doing a good job. As for disapproval among minorities, 79 percent of black respondents said they didn’t think Trump has handled the presidency well so far, as did 76 percent of Hispanics.

A third of women approved of Trump’s work in the Oval Office so far, while 63 percent disapproved. Men, by contrast, were more evenly divided, with an approval rating of 45 percent and disapproval rating of 48 percent.

Compared to recent presidents’ early approval ratings, Trump’s was by far the lowest, missing the next furthest down, that of George W. Bush in 2001, by 14 percentage points, according to Pew. Former President Barack Obama exhibited the highest early approval rating of the most recent six commanders-in-chief, with 64 percent.

The poll had a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points overall, 4.7 points for the 581 Republican-leaning respondents and 4 points for the 797 Democratic-leaning respondents. Unlike a recent Morning Consult/Politico survey proffered by Trump on his Twitter account, the Pew poll relied on opinions from a mix of both landline users, who tend to be older and whiter, and cellphone respondents.