What Happened?

Gallup, a research and consulting company known for its opinion polls, announced on Monday that President Donald J. Trump’s American approval rating reached an all-time low in their daily poll since he took office on Jan. 20.

The newest poll found that only 40 percent of Americans approve of the job President Trump has done to date. Fifty-five percent of Americans polled said they disapproved of the job Trump has done in less than a month in office, while five percent claimed to be indifferent.

According to Gallup, Trump’s disapproval rating has been in the low to mid 40 percent range since the first daily poll was released on Jan. 23. A number this low goes against the trend for new presidents; according to Gallup, both Barack Obama and George W. Bush had approval ratings in the “high fifties” several months into all of their terms. According to Gallup, the lowest approval rating for any president came in February 1952 when then President Harry S. Truman received a 22 percent approval rating.

Cal State East Bay Professor Emeritus David Baggins said his low approval rating was not a surprise to him.

“The stock market loves him and sees him as the answer to the economy,” Baggins said. But he is the opposite of elite liberal sentiment. I do expect he will ultimately be impeached.”

According to Gallup, their polls are done over a three-day period through phone interviews that contact, on average, 1,500 Americans who are 18 or older per day.

The low approval ratings could have something to do with his controversial immigration ban that halted travel between the United States and seven countries that included Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Since the executive order was signed last month, protests broke out all over the country and last week the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals put a temporary hold on it.

On Sunday, Trump’s senior adviser on immigration issues Stephen Miller, appeared on CBS television show “Face the Nation” where he said, “We have a judiciary that has taken far too much power and become in many cases a supreme branch of government. Our opponents, the media and the whole world will soon see as we begin to take further actions, that the powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned.”

On Friday, Trump told reporters on Air Force One he was considering filing a “brand-new order.” Miller said on Sunday the White House is considering a new executive order that would narrow the travel ban on refugees and travelers.

Another hot button topic of Trump’s brief tenure are his appointments of conservative judge Neil Gorsuch for Supreme Court justice and Betsy DeVos for secretary of education, who has no experience with public schools. On Monday Mike Flynn, who was appointed Trump’s national security adviser just a few days earlier, resigned after he was questioned by the FBI for a phone call he made to a Russian ambassador, according to a statement from White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.