Washington: Donald Trump will become US President on Friday with an approval rating of just 40 per cent, the lowest of any recent president and 44 points below that of outgoing President Barack Obama, according to a poll.
Following a tumultuous transition period, approval ratings for Mr Trump’s handling of the transition are more than 20 points below those for any of his three most recent predecessors, according to a new CNN/ORC Poll.
The President-elect, however, is shrugging off polls that show him with low approval ratings. He tweeted on Tuesday, “The same people who did the phony election polls, and were so wrong, are now doing approval rating polls. They are rigged just like before.”
Mr Obama took the oath in 2009 with an 84 per cent approval rating, 67 per cent approved of Bill Clinton’s transition as of late December 1992 and 61 per cent approved of George W. Bush’s transition just before he took office in January 2001.
Mr Trump’s wobbly handling of the presidential transition has left most Americans with growing doubts that the President-elect will be able to handle the job, CNN reported. About 53 per cent say Mr Trump’s statements and actions since Election Day have made them less confident in his ability to handle the presidency, and the public is split evenly on whether he will be a good or poor president (48 per cent on each side).
Americans’ impressions of Trump have worsened since November. In that time, disapproval of his handling of the transition has climbed seven points to 52 per cent, the percentage who think he’ll do a good job has dropped five points, and the share saying they have lost confidence in his ability to be president grew 10 points.
His favourability rating, a measure often seen as a read on a public figure’s personality rather than the job he/she is doing, has taken less of a hit, decreasing by just three points.
