President Donald Trump is not a particularly popular commander-in-chief. But he could at least take solace on Tuesday knowing his current approval rating is about where former President Ronald Reagan stood at the same point in his presidency.
FiveThirtyEight's tracker—which aggregates public polls, weighting them for quality, recency, sample size and partisan lean—pegged Trump's average approval rating at 42.1 percent on Tuesday. Using FiveThirtyEight's historical tools, Reagan's approval rating on Day 635 of his presidency—where Trump is now—was 42 percent. That's somewhat of a win for Trump, considering Reagan is considered by many conservatives to be the gold standard for a modern Republican president.
Trump does have some climbing to do in the coming years if he wants to keep in lockstep with Reagan. By the time Reagan left office in 1989, his average approval rating had risen to 52.8 percent, according to Gallup. Trump's Gallup average thus far stands at about 39 percent.
As it stands, the FiveThirtyEight tracker showed that, on average, a majority of the country—52.1 percent—disapproved of the job Trump is doing.
The former reality star has been no stranger to controversy in the White House and has stirred anger—especially among the left—with some of his decisions, such as the policy to separate undocumented children from their families at the border. On Tuesday, for instance, the president made headlines by attacking Stormy Daniels, the adult-film actress who has claimed she and Trump had an affair more than a decade ago.
“Federal Judge throws out Stormy Danials lawsuit versus Trump. Trump is entitled to full legal fees.” @FoxNews Great, now I can go after Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer in the Great State of Texas. She will confirm the letter she signed! She knows nothing about me, a total con!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2018
He tweeted: "'Federal Judge throws out Stormy Danials [sic] lawsuit versus Trump. Trump is entitled to full legal fees.' @FoxNews Great, now I can go after Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer in the Great State of Texas. She will confirm the letter she signed! She knows nothing about me, a total con!"
Despite the near-constant churn of scandal from Trump's White House, he has before matched Reagan's popularity. Around Day 566, for instance, they were both a skosh under 42 percent.
And while Trump might equal Reagan on Day 635, nearly every other president in the history of modern polling had a better approval rating at this point in their presidency. According to FiveThirtyEight, only Reagan (by 0.1 of a percentage point) and Harry Truman (35.2 percent) had worse approval ratings on Day 635.
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