Donald Trump’s Approval Rating Dismal After Holiday Golfing Spree, But Slightly Better With ‘Likely’ Voters
After a Thanksgiving holiday weekend that saw him play golf on a reported five straight days, Donald Trump returned to Washington, D.C., where he was greeted with the lowest approval rating in history compared to past presidents 10 months into their first terms. Trump’s overall approval rating stood at just 38.4 percent after his 312th day in office, according to the average of all polls compiled by the data site, FiveThirtyEight.
Trump spent the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, from late last Tuesday to late Sunday, at his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort. But according to press pool reports, Trump traveled on all five days to golf courses that he owns; either the Trump International in West Palm Beach, Florida or the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida, each day from Wednesday to Sunday.
By one estimate, Trump has now played 64 rounds of golf so far in just 53 weeks on the job. And while Trump prior to running for office frequently ridiculed President Barack Obama for what Trump characterized as overly frequent golfing while president, Trump is now on pace to play more than twice as many rounds of golf in his first year as Obama and President George W. Bush put together; a stark contrast to comments made by Trump on his Twitter account when Obama was still president.
Can you believe that,with all of the problems and difficulties facing the U.S., President Obama spent the day playing golf.Worse than Carter
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2014
Trump’s golfing rate also goes against promises he made on the campaign trail, once pledging that he would “rarely leave the White House because there’s so much work to be done.”
On a separate occasion, Trump told supporters, “I’m going to be working for you, I’m not going to have time to go golfing, believe me.”
Obama played 29 rounds of golf in his first year, an average of one round every 12.6 days, while Bush played only seven rounds in his first year or one game every 52.2 days. But Trump has played a round of golf once every 4.88 days; a pace that will see him playing 75 rounds of golf in his first year alone compared to the combined 36 played by Obama and Bush. By some estimates, Trump is now on pace to play golf three times more often than Obama did over eight years in office.
Whether a link exists between Trump’s frequent golfing and his record-low approval ratings is unclear. But the fact remains that after his five straight reported days of Florida golf over the long holiday weekend, Trump returned to work facing a dismal 37 percent approval rating in the daily Gallup tracking poll, down just a tick from his 38 percent approval rating prior to his holiday golfing vacation.
But the approval rating polls held, if not good news for Trump, then at least slightly better news when the polling average was filtered to include only polls of “likely” or registered voters. According to FiveThirtyEight.com, those Americans who appear more motivated to vote give Trump a slightly more encouraging 40.1 percent approval rating in an average of all such polls.
The political site, Ballotpedia, also compiles a daily average of Trump’s approval rating polls, finding only marginally better results than FiveThirtyEight.com. According to Ballotpedia, Trump now endures a 39 percent overall approval rating while the RealClearPolitics average puts Trump’s approval rating at just a fraction over 39 percent.
At this stage – 10+ months in – Trump’s prior dozen predecessors had an average approval nearly 23 points higher than Trump (Gallup data). Their median approval: 58% /10 pic.twitter.com/dNJarOh3D2
— West Wing Reports (@WestWingReport) November 28, 2017
The worst previous approval rating ever recorded for any president — since 1945 when approval rating polls began — after 312 days in office belonged to Bill Clinton in 1993, who stood at 48.1 percent. Obama held a 50.3 percent approval rating, holding on to support from just over half of the American people after his 312th day.
[Featured Image by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images]
