October 26, 2019

By Kerry Eleveld

Daily Kos

Donald Trump's approval rating in recent polls is hitting some of its lowest marks of the year and appears to be sliding ever closer to his lowest point in 2019, the government shutdown in January. FiveThirtyEight's aggregate of polls put Trump at 40.6% approval late Thursday with what appeared to be a continued downward trajectory. Trump bottomed out this year in the aggregation of polls at 39.3% on Jan. 25.

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Something to pay attention to as more polling on Trump's impeachment and approval continues to come out is where independents come down on the matter of Trump's approval rating. Quinnipiac's latest poll, for instance, showed Trump's overall approval rating falling to 38% (with 58% disapproving), the first time he's been below 40% approval in the Q poll since the impeachment inquiry began. It was a big tumble since last week when Trump was at 41% approve, 54% disapprove. But Trump's new low included a 64% disapproval rating among independents (with just 29% approving), a 10% bump from last week's Q poll when 54% of indies disapproved of Trump’s job performance. Losing nearly two-thirds of independents is trouble territory for Trump. 

And while Trump is still above 80% approval with Republicans, that's a number to watch as well. Last week, he stood at 88% approval with Republicans; this week, he dropped to 83% approval. If Trump starts dipping into the low-70s among Republicans, watch out.

As journalist Jacob Weisberg noted Thursday on MSNBC, Senate Republicans have no actual "loyalty" to Trump. "What there is, is self-interest and fear," he explained. But if Trump were to suddenly become an electoral liability to them, they wouldn't think twice about throwing him to the wolves because few if any of them actually like Trump. 

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