Trump Gets His Highest Disapproval Rating Ever in Fox News Poll

Photo by Bryan Dozier/NurPhoto via AP

A new Fox News poll released on Wednesday shows President Donald Trump’s disapproval rating is the highest it has been in either of his two terms.

A whopping 59% of respondents said they disapprove of Trump’s performance as president, with 47% saying they strongly disapprove. The 59% disapproval figure is the highest Trump has received in a Fox News poll. Only 41% of Americans said they approve. The survey was conducted between March 20 and March 23 and has a margin of error of three percent.

One key issue that seems to be weighing down the president is the war on Iran and its knock-on effects on the economy. Just 42% of voters back the war, according to the Fox News survey, with independents supporting it at a clip of just 28%.

A Reuters poll released on Tuesday had similarly bad numbers for Trump, as his approval rating in that survey was just 36%.

The Trump administration has been facing questions about the war’s justification and prospects since it began on Feb. 28, when the U.S. and Israel began bombing Iran. Trump and administration officials have offered nearly a dozen justifications for the war, but have lately stressed the alleged nuclear threat that Iran posed. That rationale is in tension with comments Trump made after joint U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June. After that campaign, the president said that the nuclear program had been “totally obliterated.”

The president’s unpopularity was anecdotally evident last week in an NBC News interview with a woman at a gas station in Pennsylvania. Asked what she would say to Trump, one woman, who said she voted for him three times, stated, “You are a worthless pile of s**t.”

She added, “Apparently, I’m an idiot!”

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!