Ed Kilgore: “Gallup has the deepest database of presidential job-approval numbers, dating back to FDR, and the worst numbers ever belong to these presidents: Harry Truman, 22 percent (February 1952); Richard Nixon, 24 percent (July–August 1974); George W. Bush, 25 percent (October 2008); Jimmy Carter, 28 percent (June 1979); George H.W. Bush, 29 percent (July 1992); and Donald Trump, 34 percent (January 2021).”
“This is quite the parade of presidential disasters. Truman was in the depths of the Korean War and facing a vast anti–New Deal backlash that would soon elect Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower in a landslide. Nixon was about to resign in disgrace. Bush 43 was suffering from the double whammy of a failed Iraq War and a huge financial crisis. Jimmy Carter was cruising toward a terrible reelection bruising. Bush 41 was presiding over a recession and a GOP party split that would soon elect Bill Clinton. And Trump had just incited an attempted coup to reverse his 2020 election defeat, which at the time even Republicans deplored.”
“Trump 2.0 has entered that territory now.”
