There is a change in the tide. President Donald Trump hits a new approval rating low of 32 percent, according to a Monmouth University poll released on Wednesday. That is the percentage of those polled who believe Trump is doing a good job as president, while 56 percent disapprove. It is the lowest approval rating for Trump since he took office.
Perhaps even more important, the same poll finds that Democrats currently hold a 15-point advantage over Republicans when looking ahead to the 2018 elections.
The Monmouth poll found that if the 2018 election was held today, 51 percent of registered voters would vote Democratic, and just 36 percent would lean or vote Republican. That 15-point edge over the GOP in next year's generic House ballot can be all the difference for Democrats to wrestle control of Congress from Republicans.
Lowest Approval Rating of Any Modern President
It is no surprise that the biggest drop in Trump's approval rating stems from independent women. Most voters have lost faith that the current president is capable of successfully moving his agenda through Congress, and his recent actions regarding Israel will destabilize the Middle East.
That gender gap Trump is experiencing with disapproving women is beginning to cross party lines. The poll has 67 percent of Republican women less likely than the 78 percent of men to give Trump a favorable rating.
"This result is not good for the president, especially coming off the loss of his endorsed candidate in the Alabama Senate race. Republicans have to be worried about being dragged down by the weight of Trump's negatives in 2018 if this trend continues," said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute.
Trump fares just as poorly in other polls as well. A recent Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll found that, after three months of decline, 41 percent approved of Trump's job performance. The RealClearPolitics average of polls has Trump’s job rating at 37.3 percent approval and 57.8 disapproval.
A Washington Post-ABC News poll released in early November of this year found that Trump at a 37% approval rating, with only nine months under his belt as president. That’s a lower number than other president’s approval ratings at the same time in their tenures over the course of seven decades of polling, according to the Washington Post.
In other words, Donald Trump's approval rating is polling lower than any other modern-day U.S. president.
"Donald Trump has not been making many moves designed to build confidence with the American public," said Murray.
For perspective, President George W. Bush did not reach that same 32 percent until well into his second term, and Republicans lost control of both the House and the Senate soon after.
