Despite continuous stories in the media reporting that President Donald Trump has the lowest favorable rating in his first 100 days of any president in modern history, Congress’s approval is worse.
A new Gallup poll shows Trump’s favorable rating stands at 40 percent, one percentage point above 39 percent for House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI).
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s favorable rating is eight percentage points lower than Ryan’s at 31 percent.
But the honor for having the lowest rating goes to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), which stands at 27 percent.
“As the possibility of a government shutdown looms, fewer than one in three Americans view either party’s U.S. Senate leader favorably,” Gallup reported on Wednesday. “Although both men have been prominent figures in Congress for decades, roughly a third of Americans don’t know either well enough to have an opinion.”
The Gallup data, collected in an April 5-9 poll, marks the first time Gallup has measured Schumer’s popularity and notes that his 31 percent matches the same number for McConnell when he was first rated in 2010.
“McConnell’s image has been consistently less positive than that in polls since then, with his favorable rating ranging mostly in the 20s — and his 18% favorable in 2015 marking a low for the majority leader. Since 2013, Americans have consistently been more likely to have an unfavorable view of McConnell,” Gallup reported.
Gallup reports that Ryan’s’s popularity has declined by almost 10 percentage points since the failure of the American Health Care Act — from 48 percent in November 2016 to 39 percent in April.
“Ryan is not alone in low ratings among House leadership,” Gallup reported. “Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, currently has a 34% favorable rating and a 48% unfavorable rating — slightly worse than Ryan’s.”
This week Ryan’s popularity will face new challenges as the House weighs in on Trump’s tax reform proposal and funding the government.
“A key to Ryan’s survival as speaker will be in maintaining GOP support in Congress, something that Boehner was unable to do,” Gallup reported.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.