# Trump Approval ratings fell below 40% and stayed under **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [August 18, 2026, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-approval-ratings-fell-below-40-and-stayed-under/1032391 "2026-08-18T12:55:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-approval-ratings-fell-below-40-and-stayed-under/1032391/83 "2026-10-22T12:28:41Z")
That 30-something percent probably also want a third term for Trump. They’ll never quit him. Well said, LHOD (immediately above). The _hundreds_ of millions pouring in from Trump’s wealthy backers may not have an effect on anyone with a minimum of awareness but that’s not the people who think he’s a genius businessman. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-approval-ratings-fell-below-40-and-stayed-under/1032391/84 "2026-10-22T13:37:01Z")
The Crazyfication Factor is real ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-approval-ratings-fell-below-40-and-stayed-under/1032391/85 "2026-10-22T14:07:27Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > > > Even Nixon still had an approval rate of 24% when he finally resigned. > > Despite all his considerable faults, Nixon was at least a patriotic American who accomplished many good things – opened up trade with China, established the EPA, and made a good-faith effort to reform health care. Whereas virtually everything that Trump does is wrong and stupid, often reckless, and often entirely self-serving. That Trump’s approval rating is higher than Nixon’s speaks only to the enshittification and ignorant gullibility of contemporary American society. This X 100. You really can’t compare Nixon and trump. Nixon was the Dalai Lama compared to the cruel, demented, ignorant sleazeball and bonafide convicted felon that we have for a president right now. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-approval-ratings-fell-below-40-and-stayed-under/1032391/86 "2026-10-22T16:52:23Z")
Being a life-long Libertarian until Trump radicalized me, from my first Presidential election (Nixon) I would disagree, sometimes vehemently, at the policies of every single one. But I never had the sense that however misguided their decisions might be they had the best interests of this country and its inhabitants at heart. Until Trump. He doesn’t give a shit about anything but himself, mainly how much money winds up in his pocket. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-approval-ratings-fell-below-40-and-stayed-under/1032391/87 "2026-10-22T17:49:31Z")
My answer is simple. They admire him. They also want to rape and pillage with impunity. They won’t admit it, but there it is. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2026, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-approval-ratings-fell-below-40-and-stayed-under/1032391/88 "2026-10-23T11:39:41Z")
American Research Group, one of the few pollsters meeting the NY Times “select criteria,” just released a poll with 29% approval for Trump. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2026, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-approval-ratings-fell-below-40-and-stayed-under/1032391/89 "2026-10-23T12:43:50Z")
For anyone interested here’s a link for details. > **[Trump Job Approvals and The National Economy](https://americanresearchgroup.com/economy/)** But even here there is this: > Among Republicans (31% of adults registered to vote in the survey and 29% of all adults in the survey), 65% approve of the way Trump is handling his job and 31% disapprove. Republican politicians still have to contend with the fact that Republican voters approve of Trump and that of them “63% approve of the way Trump is handling the economy” That’s pretty amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2026, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-approval-ratings-fell-below-40-and-stayed-under/1032391/90 "2026-10-23T13:53:14Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Republican politicians still have to contend with the fact that Republican voters approve of Trump and that of them “63% approve of the way Trump is handling the economy” > > That’s pretty amazing. The answer to the riddle, I think, is that party identification is fluid. Over the last decade, Trump has taken over the Republican party and launched a purge of politicians who demonstrated insufficient loyalty to Him. People who don’t personally see him as the Dear Leader are actively driven from the party. At the point, the party is primarily composed of those who are Loyal with a capital L. A sizeable minority are people who will be damned if they let some senile con-man cult-leader motherfucker kick them out of the political party they’ve been in their whole lives. 63% approve of how he handles the economy? That tells me that 37% of the Republican party are the ornery bastards who stay in despite the cultification. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2026, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-approval-ratings-fell-below-40-and-stayed-under/1032391/91 "2026-10-23T14:10:16Z")
I have a friend, 20 years older than I, who is still Republican, but hates Trump. He didn’t vote for President in 2020 or 2024, wouldn’t cross parties. He did vote Trump 2016. For state elections he still votes mostly R but for Congress, voted for the Democrat, Frank Pallone. * * * * * * I was a Republican, but have voted Pallone and Bill Bradley even when I was. I voted Clinton 1996, my first Dem vote for President. 2000 was Green Party but 2004 forward, Dem. I even campaign for Obama, Vets for Obama. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2026, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-approval-ratings-fell-below-40-and-stayed-under/1032391/92 "2026-10-23T15:06:31Z")
A nice hypothesis but not borne out looking at Gallup party ID data anyway. > **[New High of 45% in U.S. Identify as Political Independents](https://news.gallup.com/poll/700499/new-high-identify-political-independents.aspx)** > > A new high of 45% of U.S. adults identified as political independents in 2025. Independents way up but more of a shift there from Democratic than Republican. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2026, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-approval-ratings-fell-below-40-and-stayed-under/1032391/93 "2026-10-24T13:57:45Z")
I’m not really up on the history of the period but in the 1850s the Whig party suddenly collapsed and the Republican party rose to fill the vacuum left in our all but legislated two-party system. I’m wondering if all of those independent-registered voters – I’m one – have some common stand they can use to form a new party around to take the place of the Republicans, should that party collapse. Or, like Tolstoy’s unhappy families, each independent is unhappy with the existing parties in their own way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-approval-ratings-fell-below-40-and-stayed-under/1032391.md?page=4)