09/12/18
Gallup editor-in-chief Frank Newport on Wednesday speculated that President Trump’s solid political base provides a source of comfort for him amid “below average” overall approval ratings.
“He [Trump] would love to have large support from everybody. That’s why, when he can do it, he’ll try to tweet out an overall approval rating among all Americans, but since he’s not getting that support. He’s way below average in terms of his overall approval,” Newport told Hill.TV’s Joe Concha on “What America’s Thinking.”
“He has transitioned into thinking just [of] his base because it’s more comforting to him,” he continued.
“One of the reasons he likes these rallies, one of the reasons why he talks about his base is because that’s where he has that support, and he can’t really talk about support overall in the American public so he’s really playing to those groups of people, and he’s hoping that they’ll help keep him, and his party viable through to the next presidential election,” he said.
Trump’s approval rating has dropped nearly 2.5 percentage points over the past three weeks, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average.
The average has the Trump’s approval rating at 41 percent, which is close to where it has been for most of the year.
However, Trump still enjoys high approval among Republicans.
Ninety percent of Republicans said they approved of Trump’s job, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released late last month.
— Julia Manchester
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