President Trump’s job approval is at -11.8%

President Donald Trump has had a rough patch of polling in recent weeks. While he only stayed in positive territory in his approval ratings until March 10th of this year, his approval rating never dropped below -7% until November.

In the first week of November, Mr Trump’s approval rating in Real Clear Politics dropped to -11%, and then to a low of -13.1% on November 22nd. This means that the President’s approval rating is slightly improved from that low, but it is still not high.

It should be noted that many leaders of other Western nations have lower approval ratings than Trump. Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer has an approval rating worse than -50%, and France’s President Emmanuel Macron has an approval rating closer to Starmer’s than to Trump’s.

In fact, President Trump’s approval rating of -11.8% would be considered quite healthy for many leaders around the world. But in the context of American politics, with more partisanship, and thus more guaranteed support for a President, Trump’s approval ratings are not great.

But at the same time, his disapproval rating can be over emphasized. He is doing better in that regard than George W Bush and Barack Obama were doing at this time int heir respective second terms (November 2005 for Bush and November 2013 for Obama).

It is less that the approval ratings that are a problem for Trump (though they are), and more that the GOP base is unsatisfied and fracturing. Cost of living continues to be an extremely important issue that hasn’t been resolved yet.

Trump’s stance on H1B visas, his 50-year mortgage proposal, his focus on foreign affairs, and in particular to Israel, and the American right’s general fracture between establishment, more pro Israel, pro supply side wing, and the more populist, isolationist, younger wing, all have come together to create a feeling of discontent within the GOP.

Added of course were the Democratic Party’s wins in special elections (which were low turnout and in mainly blue areas), and there is a feeling that Trump is stagnating and the base is restless.

The good news for Trump is that it is still early in his term, and this is not happening during a Presidential or midterm year. He still has time to turn things around. But he doesn’t have unlimited time. If he wants things to turn around for the better, he needs to start working on the priorities of his base, not the special interests, right now, not in a year, or even in a few months.

Will President Trump get the message? And even if he doesn’t, does he have the time and Congressional support to succeed? Only time will tell.