President Trump’s approval rating has hit a new low in Gallup’s daily tracking poll following a tumultuous week that began with an escalation in threats involving North Korea and ended with the death of one woman and two Virginia State Police officers after white nationalists clashed with counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Va.
According to a Gallup Daily tracking poll released Monday, the president’s approval rating dipped to 34 percent for the three-day period from Friday through Sunday, which is the lowest approval rating in Gallup’s history for a newly elected president in the summer of his first term.
Sixty-one percent of those polled disapprove of the president’s job performance.
Among Republicans, Trump’s latest weekly approval rating of 79 percent was the lowest among GOP voters thus far, according to Gallup.
Trump’s previous three-day low was 35 percent, from March 26-28.
While Trump was on a “working vacation” at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., last week, his comments about North Korea dominated news coverage throughout the week.
After the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution imposing sanctions on North Korea on Saturday, Trump warned Pyongyang it would face “fire and fury” if it continued to provoke the U.S.
The president’s comments sparked an exchange of threats with the rogue regime. By the end of the week, the U.S. territory of Guam was on high alert after North Korea threatened to fire missiles near it.
On Saturday, white nationalists clashed with counter-protesters in Charlottesville, where racist groups were opposing the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee.
At the rally, 20-year-old James Alex Fields allegedly drove his car into the crowd of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring 19 other people. Two Virginia State police officers also died after their helicopter crashed while they were responding to the rally.
Trump gave remarks on the events in Charlottesville on Saturday and condemned the violence there, but said “many sides” were responsible for the “egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence.”
Republicans and Democrats criticized the president for failing to denounce specific white nationalist groups, which he did on Monday.
Although Gallup’s Daily tracking poll ran from Friday through Sunday, the company said changes to Trump’s approval rating were apparent Friday and remained near 34 percent on Saturday and Sunday.
