US President Donald Trump’s approval rating sinks lower: Gallup poll

US President Donald Trump walks from Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House as he returns from his weekend trip to Mar-a-Lago, in Washington, DC, February 12, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Donald Trump’s job approval rating has hit a new low, a new survey shows, underscoring the new US president’s growing unpopularity less than a month after being inaugurated.

The Gallup poll released on Sunday showed that only 40 percent of American people approved of Trump’s performance in the White House, while 55 percent disapproved.

This shows a 5-point drop from January 20, the day Trump was sworn into the White House.

Barack Obama, Trump’s predecessor, fared much better than Trump during the same period, with an approval rating that hovered around 65 percent over his first months in office.

Trump’s numbers even pale in comparison with that of former president George W. Bush, who began both of his terms in the White House with approval ratings of more than 50 percent.

Trump won the presidential race on November 8, after leading a divisive and bitter campaign against his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Despite starting his work by calling on all Americans to unite, Trump remained a source of division and spurred even more controversy by cracking down on immigration and attempting to scrap the Affordable Care Act, Obama’s signature healthcare law.

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order aiming to “ease the burden of Obamacare," which covers some 20 million Americans.

Only five days after being sworn in, Trump signed an order to begin the construction of a wall on the border with Mexico.

He took another step to curb immigration by signing a separate executive order that authorized a crackdown on US cities that shield undocumented immigrants.

His most controversial immigration measure came two days later, when he authorized a travel ban against people coming from seven Muslim-majority countries—Iran, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Sudan and Somalia.

The discriminatory policies have stirred domestic and international uproar, with millions of people staging protests across the world.

Even Republicans have not been able to hide their concerns, with party heavyweights such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator John McCain constantly condemning his actions.

Unaffected by the overwhelming criticism, however, Trump has pledged to push ahead with his plans.

Trump has also dismissed all negative polls as “fake.”