Donald Trump comes to the presidency with the lowest poll numbers of any incoming president since — well, since random sample public opinion polling started in October 1935. Pollsters haven’t been asking about Trump’s job rating yet, since as this is written he hasn’t as yet taken the job, but his favorables/unfavorables have generally been negative: 41 versus 50 percent in the Jan. 19 realclearpolitics.com average.

But his favorable numbers in particular have been widely different, 32 to 50 percent favorable, partly probably because of different question wording, partly perhaps because of particular news stories breaking on particular days.