President Donald Trump's approval has collapsed to near-historic lows, according to a new analysis, and Americans disapprove of his handling of every major issue.
The president has been trying to change the subject from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal that has ballooned this month after his Department of Justice announced the disgraced financier had killed himself while awaiting trial and had not kept a client list. CNN's Harry Enten found the issue was a major drag on Trump's popularity.
"Six months in, the rules of political gravity absolutely apply to Donald Trump, and the USS Donald Trump has taken on a lot of water," Enten said. "What are we talking about? Trump's net approval rating.
"Look, he started off back in January [at] plus-six points. On the net approval rating, minus-three in March, minus-seven [in] May, and now he's at a term-two low at minus-11 points. His net approval rating has dropped nearly 20 points in the aggregate since the beginning of his presidency. The American people do not like what they're seeing, and Donald Trump's administration is in a ton of trouble at this point in the minds of the American voters."
"They disapprove of him on all of the issues, he's underwater on all the major issues of the day," Enten added. "Trump's net approval rating on all the major issues, minus-five points on immigration – his best issue, he's underwater. How about the economy? That was what he was elected for – minus-14 points. How about foreign policy – minus-14 points. How about trade, in those tariff wars, minus-15 points, and, of course, the Epstein case, the lowest of the bunch, minus-37 points, 37 points below water. My goodness gracious, on every single issue, Donald Trump is below water on all the major ones. They're all dragging him down, no matter it seems what Donald Trump does, the American people do not like it."
Second-term Trump is giving first-term Trump a run for his money in terms of unpopularity, Enten added.
"I do have one piece of good news for Donald Trump and that there is one other presidency that has a lower net approval rating at this point than this one," Enten said. "The bad news is that it was Donald Trump's other presidency. His first presidency net approval rating, six months in, the worst was in 2017. Donald Trump was 16 points underwater. The second worst, however, is this Donald Trump presidency, 11 points underwater. The average president at this point since 1953 has a plus 27 net approval rating."
"It seems to me that Donald Trump is about 40 points lower than the average president at this particular point," Enten added. "He has the second-worst net approval rating at this point. He is underwater on all the major issues of the day. The bottom line is, six months into this administration, I think that most Americans would apply the word or words disaster, terrible, awful, horrible – I think that is the way that the American people would see it at this particular point. He is so far below underwater compared to the average president, the only one he beats out is him in term number one. I don't think that's exactly the metric he wants to be applying to himself."
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