Donald Trump's approval rating is above 50% in only 12 states: CNN [View all]

[Stuart G]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/30/politics/trump-approval-ratings-gallup/index.html

Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large
Updated 12:20 PM ET, Tue January 30, 2018

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President Donald Trump is expected to trumpet a unity message in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, an attempt to turn a corner from the divisiveness of his first year in office.

New polling on that first year of Trump shows that the President has a lot of work to do in bringing the country together. There are just 12 states where Trump's job approval rating was above 50% for the entirety of 2017. That pales in comparison to the 41 states where then-President Barack Obama was above 50% approval for his first year on office.

The numbers are reflective of two things:

1. Trump's overall job approval number nationwide was never over 50% in Gallup polling at any point in 2017. Trump's high point was 366 days ago when he was at 45% approval and 47% disapproval. The last time Trump's approval was over 40% in Gallup polling was at the end of May 2017 -- when he was at 41%. Trump averaged the lowest job approval number -- 38% -- of any president ever in his first year in office in Gallup data. At the end of 2009, Obama's approval rating was at 57%.

2. Trump's most loyal voters -- and states -- are staying with him. His job approval was highest in places like West Virginia, North Dakota and Wyoming where he won by huge margins in 2016. (One interesting note: Democratic senators are running for re-election in both West Virginia and North Dakota this fall.) Many of those states are also less populated.

(rest of article at above link)