President Donald Trump is beginning his run as president with a 36 percent approval rating, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday.
Breaking down the result by party affiliation:
- Republicans who approve of Trump: 81 percent.
- Democrats who approve: 4 percent.
- Independents who approve: 35 percent.
Between men and women:
- Men who approve: 41 percent.
- Men who disapprove: 38 percent.
- Women who approve: 33 percent.
- Women who disapprove: 50 percent.
However, Americans appear to be thinking positively about the next four years:
- Optimistic about Trump's presidency: 53 percent.
- Not optimistic about Trump: 43 percent.
By comparison, when President Barack Obama began his first term in 2009, his approval rating was 59 percent.
Voters in the poll believe that Trump will be less successful than Obama as president.
- Worse than Obama: 50 percent.
- Better than Obama: 37 percent.
"Stumbling out of the blocks, President Donald Trump is considered a divider, not a uniter, flunking on honesty, empathy, and level-headedness, while his predecessor sees his legacy burnished by better and better numbers every polling cycle," Quinnipiac University poll assistant director Tim Malloy said.
Obama also did well in a poll question asking for an opinion about the best president of the last 70 years, coming in second to Ronald Reagan.
- Reagan: 30 percent.
- Obama: 29 percent.
- John F. Kennedy: 12 percent.
- Bill Clinton: 9 percent.
- Dwight Eisenhower & George W. Bush: 3 percent.
Quinnipiac University conducted the poll Jan. 20-25 among 1,190 voters nationwide, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.
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