100 days: President Trump is twice as unpopular as President Obama
More Americans think President Trump is doing a poor job than for any other recent president.
Polling ahead of President Trump’s 100th day in office, which is April 29, has found he is proving unpopular among Americans.
According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday, 45 percent of Americans believe Trump is doing a poor job.
Of those who believe Trump is doing a good job, 19 percent say he is off to a fair start, while 35 percent believe he is doing a good or great job.
This compares badly with his predecessor, President Obama.
In 2009, a combined 54 percent of Americans said Barack Obama was off to a good or great start within his first 100 days as president.
25 percent said Obama was off to a fair start, while 21 percent called his performance to that point poor – less than half as many as for Trump.
Trump’s overall approval rating has slid another four points from last month, also.
It now sits at 40 percent, lower than any of his Democratic and Republican predecessors.
Obama’s approval rating stood at 61 percent at this point in his administration, while George W. Bush’s was at 56 percent and Bill Clinton’s was at 52 percent.
It comes as Trump looks set to become the most powerful post-war president.
Trump-nominated Supreme Court justice Neil Gorsuch took up his seat on the highest court in the US this month – after Republicans changed Senate rules to push through his confirmation without the required number of votes.
With conservative Justice Gorsuch filling the seat of late conservative justice Antonin Scalia, the nine-person US Supreme Court retained the narrow 5-4 divide on LGBT rights protections that led to the 2015 Obergefell v Hodges same-sex marriage decision.
If a liberal judge steps down, the conservatives will have control of the presidency, both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court.
However, anti-LGBT activists are hopeful that they can turn the tide on the court, amid rumours that a liberal-voting justice is about to vacate their seat.
Three of the justices who sided with equal marriage – 84-year-old Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 80-year-old Anthony Kennedy and 78-year-old Stephen Breyer – are rumoured to be approaching retirement.
Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, hinted he expects a Supreme Court justice to retire soon, saying: “I would expect a resignation this summer”.
