The dispersed shot-pattern of President Trump’s approval ratings proves he’s still confounding pollsters. For weeks, and especially since Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs on what he dubbed Liberation Day, the establishment media’s prevailing narrative has been that the president is plummeting in the polls. However, a closer look at today’s polling reveals a far different story.
There is no avoiding the fact that Donald Trump is a divisive politician. RealClearPolitics’ historical average of his national favorability polling shows his first (7/16/16) favorability reading as 26.3%-61.3%. On Jan. 1, 2017, just days before he took office following his November 2016 upset win, he was still underwater by nearly 4 percentage points. Even around the time of his 2025 inauguration, Trump’s favorability was barely positive at 48.1%-47.9%.
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