… President Donald Trump pays more public attention to his job approval rating than any recent president in my experience. Unlike Bush, Trump generally doesn’t discount the overall importance of job approval ratings. In fact, Trump’s frequent references to the measure legitimize its importance in his estimation, even as he often criticizes specific polls.
Trump has employed three basic approaches to job approval ratings. First, he supports and quotes job approval measures when they are to his liking, underscoring his basic acceptance of the measure as a valid indicator of his performance. Second, he often claims his approval rating would be 20 or 30 points higher if not for various impediments, including the Fed and the “fake news media.” This too legitimizes the underlying concept of using the approval rating as a measure of performance. Third, he dismisses specific approval ratings he doesn’t like, calling them “fake” or “suppression polls,” alleging that various pollsters are deliberately attempting to make his approval too low. This doesn’t mean Trump is dismissing job approval ratings per se, just certain specific polling results that don’t fit his self-conception. CONT.
Frank Newport, Gallup