Snapshot: 4 in 10 Still Strongly Disapprove of Trump

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Despite a challenging week in which his former lawyer pleaded guilty to federal charges and his former campaign chairman was convicted of eight crimes, Donald Trump's job approval rating and the intensity of Americans' opinions of him are stable. His latest approval rating is 41% and disapproval is 54%. Twenty-seven percent of Americans "strongly" approve of Trump's job performance and 40% strongly disapprove, on par with the three previous readings Gallup has recorded since February 2017, shortly after he took office.

	February 2017	May 2018	July 2018	August 2018
	%	%	%	%
Approve strongly	27	26	26	27
Approve moderately	15	16	15	14
Disapprove moderately	12	13	11	14
Disapprove strongly	41	41	43	40
GALLUP

Background: Gallup has measured the intensity of presidential job approval on occasion dating back to 1965, and the latest reading is from an Aug. 20-26 survey. Majorities of both those who approve and those who disapprove of Trump do so strongly. However, a higher proportion of disapprovers (74%) than approvers (66%) feel strongly about their opinions of the president.

In the 84 times Gallup has measured strength of job approval, only two presidents have registered higher strong disapproval than Trump's 40%: Richard Nixon (48% strongly disapproved of Nixon in February 1974, as he was mired in the Watergate crisis) and George W. Bush (44% in February 2006, as opposition to the Iraq War in the U.S. escalated). Both of those readings came during the president's sixth year in office, as did Barack Obama's highest reading of 39% strong disapproval. (Bush also registered 43% strong disapproval in December 2005, at the end of his fifth year.)

Just as the intensity of approval of Trump's job performance has been flat throughout his presidency thus far, there has been little meaningful change in the opinions of key subgroups.

• Sixty-eight percent of Republicans strongly approve of Trump's job performance, while an even larger 77% of Democrats strongly disapprove. The same pattern is seen in the opinions of Americans who consider themselves very conservative and very liberal.

• While roughly four in 10 Americans across age groups strongly disapprove of Trump, majorities of those under age 50 disapprove overall, but those 50 and older are about equally likely to approve as disapprove.

• Two-thirds of African-Americans and 42% of Hispanics strongly disapprove, but non-Hispanic whites are roughly evenly split between the two extremes.

• Majorities of college graduates (54%) strongly disapprove, but those without college degrees are about equally likely to choose one of the two extremes.

• While pluralities of men (36%) and women (43%) strongly disapprove of Trump, men are slightly more likely than women to strongly approve, 30% to 25%.

	Approve strongly	Approve moderately	Disapprove moderately	Disapprove strongly
	%	%	%	%
All adults	27	14	14	40
Party ID
Republican	68	17	8	6
Independent	17	17	20	38
Democrat	4	6	11	77
Ideology
Very conservative	63	16	9	11
Conservative	49	21	10	16
Moderate	17	15	19	44
Liberal	5	5	11	76
Very liberal	4	8	11	72
Age
18-29	8	18	30	40
30-49	27	13	13	40
50-64	36	14	8	38
65+	35	12	7	43
Race/Ethnicity
Non-Hispanic white	36	16	10	34
Non-Hispanic black	5	9	17	66
Hispanic	9	10	28	42
Education
College graduate	22	10	11	54
Not college graduate	30	16	15	33
Gender
Male	30	16	12	36
Female	25	12	16	43
GALLUP, Aug. 20-26, 2018