Trump approval rating plunges amid gun debate
US President Donald Trump’s approval ratings have once again fallen back to their lowest numbers as he struggles to contain public outrage over the country’s lax gun laws.
Around 35 percent of voters asked by CNN said Sunday that they approved of the job Trump was doing. That is five percent less than January, when strong economic outlooks bumped up Trump’s numbers.
The new rating, however, matches his approval ratings in December, his lowest in CNN polling since being inaugurated in January 2017.
Trump is still popular among Republican voters with 80 percent approval. That is one percent less than his lowest. Among Democrats, the number stood at only five percent while 35 percent of Independents said they approved of him.
Trump, who is pro-gun rights, have come under pressure to mend the country’s gun control laws following last week’s mass shooting that killed 17 people at a Florida high school.
Opponents of stricter gun laws, including the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), which supported Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, have dismissed the mounting demands for gun control as being politically motivated.
Trump, himself has stirred more outrage by promoting the idea of allowing teachers and staff to carry concealed firearms in classrooms and schools to protect students following this month's shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people.
The president asserted that Nikolas Cruz, the suspect in the Parkland massacre, would never have entered the school building if he believed teachers were armed and ready to return fire.
According to the new poll, just a third of Americans approved of the Republican head of state’s handling of US gun policy, 54 percent disapproved and another 12 percent said they have yet to make up their minds.
The numbers went up among people who lived in gun-owning households, with 52 percent of the participants approving of his work on gun policy.
Historic unpopularity
Trump's approval rating is lower than his three immediate predecessors – Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton -- at the same point in their time in the White House.
The previous low was held by former President Obama, whose lowest first-year number stood 14 points higher than Trump’s, at 49 percent. Trump is 12 behind the previous low mark of 47 percent set by former Presidents Ronald Reagan in 1982 and Jimmy Carter in early 1978.
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