Gallup poll: Trump enters WH with lowest approval rating

President Trump entered the Oval Office with the lowest approval rating of any U.S. president since Dwight Eisenhower, according to a Gallup poll out Monday. 

Forty-five percent of Americans approve of how the real estate mogul is handling his new job – the same as the percent of Americans who disapprove. The data represents the first time since Gallup began conducting the survey that a new president’s approval rating dipped below 50 percent.

Trump’s inaugural approval rating falls well below that of former President Barack Obama, who entered the office with 68 percent approval. Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush previously held the records for lowest initial approval; both received about 51 percent.

{mosads}The poll also recorded the lowest percentage of respondents to express no opinion – 10 percent – a possible indication of increasing political polarization among voters. Among Republicans, 90 percent approved of Trump’s handling of his first days in office, while 81 percent of Democrats disapproved.

The gap was also particularly pronounced between whites and nonwhites – 56 percent disapproval, compared to 22 percent approval.

Trump emerged as a controversial presidential candidate in the early days of his campaign. And while he won the electoral vote in November, the real estate mogul lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million – the largest margin by which a president has lost the popular vote while still winning the overall election.

Despite the usual political honeymoon granted to new presidents, Trump entered office on Friday to a chorus of protests across Washington.

Millions of demonstrators also held marches and rallies across the country on Saturday to advocate for women’s rights. The Gallup analysis of the survey noted that the marches might have affected how some people view the new president.

The cellphone and landline poll was conducted Jan. 20-22 with a random sample of 1,525 adults. It has a margin of error of 3 points.