Donald Trump Left Office with All-Time-Low Approval Rating

Donald Trump's approval rating hit an all-time low for his four years in office as he departed the White House for good on Wednesday.

According to a Gallup poll conducted Jan. 4-15 and published Monday, Trump, 74, completed his presidency with 34 percent of Americans approving of his job — his worst performance in Gallup polls since he took office in January 2017.

What's more, on average, the 45th president had just a 41 percent approval rating during his full term — four points lower than any of his predecessors in Gallup's polling era, which began with Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938.

In comparison, former President Barack Obama left office in January 2017 with an approval rating of 59 percent, while his average approval rating from his eight years in office was 47.9 percent. George W. Bush's average approval rating was 49.4 percent, though his final rating before he left office in 2009 amid the Great Recession was, like Trump's, 34 percent.

Trump's highest approval point was 49 percent, which came in early 2020 after he was acquitted by the Senate in his first impeachment trial but before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.

After protests over racial injustice built across the country in 2020 in response to George Floyd's death in June, Trump's support fell below 40 percent as he responded to the movement with open and sometimes racist disdain.

He slightly recovered several months later in the last poll conducted before his election loss to Joe Biden in November, seeing a 46 percent approval rating from Americans.

According to Gallup, Trump is the only president since polling began with Roosevelt not to receive more than 50 percent of support from Americans at any point in his presidency.

However, public support for Trump was shown to slightly improve during his four-year presidency, averaging 38 percent his first year, 40 percent his second year, 42 percent his third year and 43 percent his last year, according to Gallup.

Trump's administration was plagued with numerous controversies, such as the investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election, his relationship with Russia's Vladimir Putin and his hesitancy to condemn white supremacists.

Most recently, he became the first commander-in-chief to be impeached twice by the House of Representatives after he incited violent riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 — an insurrection in which five people died. His second Senate trial still looms.

Breaking tradition, Trump did not attend Biden's inauguration on Wednesday (thought his Vice President Mike Pence was there) and instead held a final send-off as he boarded Air Force Once in Washington, D.C., bound for his private Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.

Once on the tarmac, Trump spoke to a crowd of approximately 200 guests, including his adult children.

He touted his four years in office and praised his supporters, telling them, "We will be back in some form," which was met with a small burst of cheers.

The former president then gave his parting message: "Have a good life," he said. "We will see you soon."

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