Seven days before the Midterms Trump sees a sharp drop in his approval ratings
With just a week to go before Trump’s first major electoral test since becoming President the latest Gallup approval rating sees a biggish drop. The chart shows that polling over the past week his net ratings edging down 4% to minus 14. This reverses a recent trend of his ratings getting better.
In previous midterm the President approval ratings have been a broad indicator. Although Trump will not appear on any ballot next week his big message as he has toured the country is that these elections are about him.
What’s happened in the past few days is that Trump’s campaign has been thrown a off track by first the pipe bombs that were sent to major figures including two former Presidents. Then there was the slaughter of Jewish people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.
Trump’s irritation at not being able to campaign in the manner he would like has been reflected in a range of Tweets.
He had been developing as an issue the so called “caravan” of potential immigrants who are moving through Mexico with the apparent intention of going to the US.
We need, of course, more polling but if other pollsters are showing a similar direction then that could add to the Republican party challenge in the elections. If punters are right the Democrats will take the House of Representatives while the Republicans will hold onto the Senate.