An average of 14 polls conducted since President Donald Trump’s inauguration show 43.9 per cent of voters approve of his performance, while 47.2 per cent disapprove.
Trendlines show Americans are as divided as ever, with both approval and disapproval increasing.
By a margin of 3.4 percentage points, most of those polled hold an unfavourable view.
But Donald Trump has never had broad appeal, nor did he need it, American politics lecturer at the University of Melbourne, George Rennie, told SBS News.
All major approval/disapproval polls since Donald Trump's inauguration, numbers via Real Clear Politics. Source: SBS
“There have been a number of polls that have seen him slip into the net negative, but that was tracking with his vote on election,” he said.
Donald Trump won the presidential Electoral College last November with just 46.1 per cent of the vote to Hillary Clinton’s 48.2 per cent.
President Trump has slammed negative polls as “fake news” on Twitter.
“Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election,” he tweeted.
“Sorry, people want border security and extreme vetting.”
A Reuters/Ipsos poll last week found that 49 per cent of respondents either ‘strongly’ or ‘somewhat’ agreed with President Trump’s executive order on immigration, with only 41 per cent ‘strongly’ or ‘somewhat’ disagreeing.
“That doesn’t surprise me at all,” Mr Rennie said. “It’s a pretty even split."
“Generally speaking, the majority of the electorate has a tough on border security mindset.”
Mr Rennie compares American’s support for the policy to the popularity of Tony Abbott’s ‘Stop the Boats’ policy.
“If the executive order was seen as less extreme, the favorability would be even higher than that,” he said.
But accurately assessing President Trump’s popularity has always been an exercise fraught with uncertainty.
Pollsters have noted that respondents are to President Trump in an automated poll, rather than ‘admit’ support to a live interviewer.
Mr Rennie says that while evidence isn’t conclusive, it appears that the blue collar swing voters who delivered President Trump victory are relatively quiet about their support.
“But if you look at the types of people who would have voted for Trump, you see a large group of people who aren’t getting out there in the public eye.”
President Trump’s early steps in putting restrictions on immigration and tightening the border may have sparked protests, “but there are a lot of people who were happy about those actions," Mr Rennie said.
Polls show more people approve of Mr Trump now than when he was inaugurated. But disapproval has also increased, more than offsetting those gains.
The new president’s combative style hasn’t helped lift his historically poor approval ratings, Mr Rennie said.
President Trump has had a rocky first few weeks, with arguments over crowd sizes, fiery calls with foreign leaders and leaking from the White House. Source: EPA/PETE MAROVICH / POOL
Rather than attempting to appeal to the political centre, as previous presidents have done to garner favour from independents and Democrats, President Trump has doubled down on an adversarial approach.
But his unpopularity could stand in the way of his agenda.
“The test is going to be when he wants to actually work with other countries, when he wants to work with congress,” Mr Rennie said.
Most of the president’s early actions have been by executive order, but he will need support in Congress for more substantial, longer-lasting reforms.
“It’s very telling that there’s no widespread support for him right now – and early in a presidency that’s so important,” Mr Rennie said.
Ultimately, President Trump’s fortunes will come down to America’s economic performance, Mr Rennie added.
“If you look at the areas that swung to Trump, the economy helped that,” he said.
Blue collar voters in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin abandoned the Democrats because Trump had a stronger message on jobs, Mr Rennie said.
“They voted for the Democrats out of economic concerns," he said. "They never necessarily agreed socially.”
