President-elect Trump’s transition approval rating is lower than that of his predecessors, according to a poll released Wednesday.
According to the Gallup poll, people are evenly split over how Trump is handling his presidential transition. Forty-eight percent approve Trump’s transition, while 48 percent disapprove.
In contrast, 75 percent approved of the way Barack Obama handled his transition in December 2008, 65 percent approved of George W. Bush’s in January 2001 and 67 percent approved Bill Clinton’s transition in December 1992.
“One major reason Trump’s transition approval lags well behind his predecessors’ is that members of the opposition party are far more critical of Trump than they were of prior presidents-elect,” according to the poll.
Among independents, just 46 percent approved Trump’s transition, while Clinton was at 64 percent, Bush at 59 percent and Obama at 75 percent.
Among Republicans, Trump’s transition got a higher approval rating of 86 percent, but it was still lower than Bush at 93 percent.
In the last several weeks, Trump has announced his choices for many Cabinet-level posts. On Wednesday, Trump officially announced former Texas Gov. Rick Perry as his nominee to head the Energy Department, and named Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson as his pick for secretary of state Tuesday.
The telephone-based poll was conducted between Dec. 7-11 with a random sample of 1,028 adults aged 18 and older. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
