President Trump reached a new low on FiveThirtyEight’s job-approval tracker this week, when his approval rating hit 41.3 percent. It’s a low for Trump, but how good or bad is a 41 percent approval rating two months into a president’s tenure in historical terms? To help put Trump’s ratings in perspective, we’ve added a new section to our tracker: Charts for each of the previous 12 presidents, showing approval, disapproval and net approval ratings compared with Trump’s at the same point in their presidencies. 
We’ve included every president back to Harry Truman — the first commander in chief for whom we have approval polls starting near the beginning of his administration. As with our calculation of Trump’s approval ratings, the ratings for past presidents are based on all the legitimate polls we can find — surveys from pollsters with higher-quality methodologies and better records of accuracy count more. Polls are also adjusted for house effects. Unlike Trump’s approval ratings, we won’t be doing separate calculations for different subgroups, such as likely or registered voters, for the past administrations; the data shown is for all polls.
So what’s the answer to our opening question? Trump’s current rating is a low not just for Trump’s presidency so far, but also for this point in any recent presidency. We’re on day 69 of the Trump administration, and his net approval rating — -11.1 — is by far the lowest of any of the past 13 presidents at this point.
| PRESIDENT | DATE | APPROVE | DISAPPROVE | NET |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trump | 3/29/17 | 41.3% | 52.4% | -11.1 |
| Obama | 3/30/09 | 61.0 | 31.8 | 29.2 |
| G.W. Bush | 3/30/01 | 54.8 | 29.5 | 25.3 |
| Clinton | 3/30/93 | 55.4 | 29.6 | 25.8 |
| G.H.W. Bush | 3/30/89 | 59.1 | 14.7 | 44.4 |
| Reagan | 3/30/81 | 60.0 | 24.0 | 36.0 |
| Carter | 3/30/77 | 72.8 | 9.8 | 62.9 |
| Ford | 10/17/74 | 50.0 | 30.8 | 19.2 |
| Nixon | 3/30/69 | 66.0 | 8.0 | 58.0 |
| Johnson | 1/30/64 | 77.0 | 5.0 | 72.0 |
| Kennedy | 3/30/61 | 73.0 | 7.0 | 66.0 |
| Eisenhower | 3/30/53 | 67.0 | 8.0 | 59.0 |
| Truman | 6/20/45 | 87.0 | 3.0 | 84.0 |
Poster Comment:
The Gallup Poll has him even lower:
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As the first president in Gallup's polling history to start his term with a job approval rating below the majority level, Donald Trump has already received the all-time lowest approval ratings of any president in his first year. Trump's recent 36% approval rating, recorded after Republicans in Congress failed to repeal and replace Obamacare, fell just below Bill Clinton's all-time low of 37% in June 1993. In interviewing conducted Sunday through Tuesday, Trump has dipped further to 35%.
#1: Gatlin To: All (#0)
Gatlin posted on 2017-03-30 09:39:25 Reply Private Reply
#2: Gatlin To: All (#1)
Gatlin posted on 2017-03-30 09:41:05 Reply Private Reply
#3: Gatlin To: All (#2)
Gatlin posted on 2017-03-30 09:47:11 Reply Private Reply
#4: Gatlin To: All (#3)
Gatlin posted on 2017-03-30 09:50:43 Reply Private Reply
#5: Gatlin To: All (#4)
Gatlin posted on 2017-03-30 09:53:27 Reply Private Reply
#6: Gatlin To: All (#5)
Gatlin posted on 2017-03-30 09:58:44 Reply Private Reply
#7: Gatlin To: All (#6)
Gatlin posted on 2017-03-30 10:03:41 Reply Private Reply
#8: Gatlin To: All (#7)
Gatlin posted on 2017-03-30 10:06:58 Reply Private Reply
#9: Gatlin To: All (#8)
Gatlin posted on 2017-03-30 10:10:03 Reply Private Reply
#10: Deckard To: Gatlin, hondo68 (#1)
Lower than Bill CLINTON's?
How is that possible
Deckard posted on 2017-03-30 10:12:28 Reply Private Reply
#11: Gatlin To: All (#9)
Gatlin posted on 2017-03-30 10:13:44 Reply Private Reply
#12: Justified To: Gatlin, Deckard (#9)
Justified posted on 2017-03-30 10:15:53 Reply Private Reply
#13: Gatlin To: All (#11)
Gatlin posted on 2017-03-30 10:19:13 Reply Private Reply
#14: Tooconservative To: Deckard (#0)
I think these polls are skewed and have been all along, skewed against anything Republican.
We do have a few off-year vacancies, like Secretary Price's House seat upcoming. We'll see how much Trump is hurting (or helping) the GOP in general.
Tooconservative posted on 2017-03-30 10:42:54 Reply Private Reply
#15: Justified To: Tooconservative (#14)
Thats something we need to keep in mind. The corrupt, inept and bias MSM is always a factor.
Justified posted on 2017-03-30 10:52:26 Reply Private Reply
#16: misterwhite To: Deckard (#0)
misterwhite posted on 2017-03-30 11:01:15 Reply Private Reply
#17: Deckard To: Justified (#12)
Say - how's that "putting Hillary in jail" thing going?
What - you mean he lied about that too?
Deckard posted on 2017-03-30 11:22:36 Reply Private Reply
#18: Deckard To: Tooconservative (#14)
Oh man - don't give them any ideas!
George W. Bush Presidential Job Approval
Deckard posted on 2017-03-30 11:23:27 Reply Private Reply
#19: Justified To: Deckard (#17)
Comey has to go before Hillary can be touched. Thats the problem with corrupt government underlings. They protect the corrupt upper class. I don't think Trump has the power to remove Comey. Maybe im wrong.
But in the end if he would have pushed for repeal instead of fix Obummercare his rating would be higher. He has done quiet alot as Gatlin has posted.
This all or nothing is what makes some people on the fringe of society and politics.
Justified posted on 2017-03-30 11:29:00 Reply Private Reply
#20: Hondo68 To: Deckard (#10)
Trump is closest to Gerald Ford, a less than one full term, appointed president. Ford was never elected president or even VP, yet he started off slightly higher than The Donald.
President Trump seems to be trending in the same direction as Ford, on to the ash heap of history.
Hondo68 posted on 2017-03-30 11:45:16 Reply Private Reply