A recent poll reveals a decline in the approval rating of President Donald Trump that has gone down to 34 percent compared to 42 percent last month and is near the lowest mark of his two-year presidency. While his ratings among Republicans are high, the same does not apply for his standing with independents. The poll is an indicator that things are not well. A large section of American feels he should take the blame for the record-breaking government Shutdown. They are not in sync with his arguments for a border wall.

Daily Mail UK reports this drop in approval is significant because Donald Trump has been in office for two years and begins the third year of his presidency with the responsibility of the longest government shutdown in the history of the US on his shoulders.

He also has some sensitive issues to take care of and will have to tread with caution to ensure an improvement in his approval rating.

Approval rating of US Presidents

It is difficult to ascertain whether the approval rating of US presidents can be the yardstick to measure the effectiveness of the incumbent. Ever since Donald Trump took over office, his approval rating had been in the range of the mid-30s to the mid-40s. This is a relatively stable scenario but now it has gone down to 34 per cent. The latest poll reveals the mindset of the people. Most of them view the shutdown as a major problem that has left roughly 800,000 government workers in the doldrums. They are going without pay and they blame Trump far more than congressional Democrats for this state of affairs.

Incidentally, President Barack Obama’s rating never fell below 40 percent in Gallup polls whereas there are instances of the figure touching the 20s for some past presidents. Trump has remained above such lows but he happens to be “the only president never to have reached 50 percent in Gallup's polling,” according to the Daily Mail UK.

Shutdown affects the approval rating

According to The Hill, President Donald Trump’s approval rating has taken a beating and reached its lowest point in more than a year. This is attributable to the partial government shutdown that enters the fifth week. Congressional Democrats refused to accede to the president’s demand for $5 billion in funds to build his proposed Mexico border wall.

Against his demand, Democrats offered $1.3 billion in border security measures. That led to the partial government shutdown and furlough of thousands of federal workers or workers forced to work without pay. In some places, FBI workers had to depend on food banks to survive the government shutdown.

In October 2017, Trump’s approval rating has plummeted to 32 percent because of his handling of the relief operations in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.
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