It seems the events over the last few weeks have started to affect Trump’s job approval numbers. To recap, there was the death of Senator John McCain, who had pre-planned his funeral to be a last statement against the kind of politics practiced by the president. That was followed by Bob Woodward’s book, which, from all accounts, appears to paint the Trump administration as going completely off the rails. Finally, there was the anonymous op-ed in the New York Times in which a senior White House official described staff attempts to thwart the worst impulses of the Commander-in-Chief.
All of that seems to have taken its toll. From the most reputable polling firms (graded A- or above by FiveThirtyEight), the presidential approval numbers have dropped below 40 percent. Here are the latest numbers (the decline from their previous polling are in parenthesis).
ABC/WaPo – 36 percent ( – 4 points)
IBD/TIPP – 36 percent ( – 5 points)
CNN/SSRS – 36 percent ( – 6 points)
Quinnipiac – 38 percent ( – 3 points)
All of these polling firms had Trump’s approval at or above 40 percent previously. Here’s what that looks like in terms of trends:
Before assuming what that might mean for the upcoming midterms, keep in mind that disapproval of the president has to translate into voting against members of his party, which might not happen in some cases. Nevertheless, this is an ominous sign for Republicans.
