Story highlights
Trump nears his 100th day with relatively low approval
Majorities said both the Democratic and Republican parties are out of touch
A pair of polls released Sunday showed President Donald Trump approaching his 100th day in office with the lowest level of support any modern president.
Forty-two percent of people in an ABC News/Washington Post poll said they approved of Trump’s performance so far, while 53% said they disapproved. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll had 40% of respondents saying they approved of Trump and 54% saying they disapproved.
But the bad news wasn’t Trump’s alone. The ABC/Washington Post poll found significant majorities said both the Democratic and Republican parties were “out of touch” with the concerns of most Americans.
Sixty-seven percent of respondents said the Democratic Party was out of touch, as did 62% for the Republican Party. Less than a third said either party was “in touch.”
Trump fared slightly better than the parties, with 58% saying he was out of touch.
Despite Trump’s low approval numbers, the poll showed him retaining support among his base, with 96% of people who said they voted for him saying they would do so again. The poll showed only 85% of those who voted for Hillary Clinton would do so again, with most of those who would not saying they would either go with a third-party candidate or not vote at all.
That difference in remaining support for the two candidates would mean Trump would best Clinton 43 to 40% in a hypothetical rematch today. In the actual election Clinton failed to achieve an an electoral victory but outpaced Trump by almost 2.9 million votes, with 65,853,516 (48.18%) to his 62,984,825 (46.09%) according to the Federal Election Commission.
Trump seized on the poll’s findings in a pair of tweets Sunday afternoon saying: “New polls out today are very good considering that much of the media is FAKE and almost always negative. Would still beat Hillary in … popular vote. ABC News/Washington Post Poll (wrong big on election) said almost all stand by their vote on me & 53% said strong leader.”
The 100-days measure has been a focus of the media since former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who signed 15 major pieces of legislation early in his presidency. Trump tweeted last week that the 100 days point was “ridiculous.” But during his campaign he referenced the point himself and promised to fight for a sweeping package of legislation as part of his 100-day plan in his “Contract with the American Voter.” With less than a week until he hits the 100-day mark, none of those legislative proposals have come to pass.
Gallup’s historical presidential approval numbers showed most presidents were near the height of their popularity in the beginning of their first terms.
Respondents to Sunday’s polls also weighed in on a few areas unique to Trump.
Thirty-four percent of the ABC/Washington Post poll respondents said they disapproved of Trump including his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner in his administration.
And a majority, 54%, said they did not have a problem with Trump working out of Mar-a-lago, his private club in Florida.
The ABC News/Washington Post poll surveyed 1,004 adults over April 17-20 and had a margin of error ±3.5% points. The NBC/WSJ poll surveyed 900 adults over that same period and had a margin of error ±3.3% points.
