Trump’s Approval Rating Lowest Since 2015 As Popularity With GOP Plunges, Poll Finds

Topline

Former President Donald Trump is now the least popular with voters that he’s been since his first fateful ride down the escalator in the early days of his first presidential campaign, a new Quinnipiac University poll finds, as Republican and independent voters have grown increasingly discontented with the ex-president as he launches a new presidential run and comes under legal scrutiny.

Please clap: Former President Donald Trump arrives onstage to speak during an event at Mar-A-Lago on … [+] November 15 in Palm Beach, Florida.

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Key Facts

The poll, conducted from December 8 to December 12 among 1,614 U.S. adults, found that 31% of registered voters polled have a favorable view of Trump, while 59% view him unfavorably.

That marks Trump’s lowest approval rating since July 2015, according to Quinnipiac, and is down from 37% who had a favorable opinion of him in July.

Republican voters also recorded their lowest approval of Trump since March 2016, during the GOP presidential primaries, though a 70% majority of Republican respondents still view him favorably (down from 77% in July).

Only 25% of independents have a positive view of Trump, which marks the lowest number since Quinnipiac started tracking the question in May 2015 and is down from 34% in July.

A 70% majority of registered voters polled do not want Trump to be the GOP candidate in 2024, though a 56% majority of Republican voters do (38% of Republicans do not).

A 47% plurality think that Trump committed a crime with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, while 43% think he did not.

Trump’s popularity in the Quinnipiac poll is lower than other polls have recorded, with a FiveThirtyEight analysis showing Trump has a 40.2% approval rating on average as of Saturday.

Big Number

51%. That’s the share of registered voters who believe Trump should be disqualified entirely from running for president based on his recent call to “terminate” the Constitution in order to reverse his 2020 election loss.

Surprising Fact

In contrast to Trump’s low numbers, President Joe Biden saw his highest approval rating among registered voters since September 2021—though only 43% approve of the job he’s doing as president, while 49% disapprove, according to Quinnipiac.

Tangent

The poll also looked at billionaire Elon Musk’s approval rating in light of the Tesla CEO recently taking control of Twitter and garnering widespread controversy for his leadership of the platform. Only 36% of respondents have a favorable view of Musk, though that’s higher than the 33% who disapprove of him, while 25% had no opinion. Respondents were also split on Musk’s handling of Twitter, with 37% each approving and disapproving of how he’s running the platform, while 25% had no opinion.

Key Background

Trump announced his candidacy for 2024 in November even as he’s seen his popularity sharply decline in the wake of the midterm elections. Many of the candidates he endorsed lost their races and prominent Republicans have pointed the finger at Trump’s influence for the election not resulting in the “red wave” of GOP wins that had been expected, with Democrats instead holding the Senate and winning many high-level state races. While Quinnipiac’s polling still showed a majority of Republican voters backing Trump as the party’s 2024 nominee, other recent polls have instead found Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) pulling ahead of Trump with the party’s base, and a CNN poll released Wednesday found approximately six in ten Republican and Republican-leaning voters would prefer someone besides Trump to be the 2024 candidate. Trump’s falling popularity comes as the ex-president has additionally faced mounting legal scrutiny, with the Justice Department moving forward with multiple investigations into his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of White House documents that were brought back to Mar-A-Lago. Trump and the Trump Organization also face a $250 million civil lawsuit in New York for alleged fraud—after the Trump Organization was already separately found guilty of tax fraud in another case last week—and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has renewed a criminal investigation into Trump himself.