Trump is still in an episode of approval decline, the 12th of his presidency. Here are the stats:
- Duration of 5 weeks (the average is 4.6 weeks)
- Drop of 2.10 percentage points to a low of 39.9% as of September 14
- Rank of 6/10 on the severity scale (6 of the 12 episodes have been more severe–so this one is in the middle of the pack, and there has not been a dip this severe since December 2017)
- The approval has been below 40% for 4 of the last ten days.
- After spending much of 2017 in the mid-to-high 30s, Trump has not been below 40% since February 2018.
This dip began in the week of August 19-25 with the Cohen plea deal and the Manafort guilty plea, but each subsequent week had events that probably account for the continued decline: McCain’s death and Trump’s response; the Woodward book and the anonymous op-ed by a Trump official; some particularly unhinged tweets about Sessions, law enforcement, etc. This week also saw Manafort reach a plea deal, so we will see if Trump’s numbers continue to decline next week or begin to stabilize.