IntroductionFor the first time in the world history, the United States has a president who has never held public position before. The current president of the United States, Donald J. Trump has made history by entering the oval office without passing through small leadership positions in the U.S. government. In the highly-contested presidential race with the democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, Trump surprised many by clinching to the top position, despite many polls showing that he would lose. Most people who opposed Donald Trump said that he would take America in the wrong direction through his tough policies on immigration, health, and gun control. Since he was sworn in Trumps disapproval ratings have increased dramatically. Understanding the cause of disapproval will help in predicting the future of Trump’s presidency and whether he has another chance in the next presidential election.
President Trump’s High Disapproval Ratings
According to Marcin (2017), president Trump’s disapproval rating has increased dramatically since he took office in January. Marcin says that Trump is disapproved by roughly 52.3 percent of Americans, with only 41.9 approving his presidency (Marcin, 2017). These statistics were conducted in a poll by FiveThirtyEight organization. In addition to increased disapproval ratings, president Trump also seems to be losing ground in key swing states that helped him defeat the democratic candidate. Compared with previous U.S. presidents, Trump ranks at the bottom in terms of approval ratings a few months after taking office (Marcin, 2017). In public administration, political discipline is an important concept that has been used in explaining why some leaders become successful and others don’t. Trump has been greatly because of his inappropriate comments about women and Muslims. Perhaps this is the reason why many Americans, especially immigrants have continued to disapprove his presidency. Even after becoming president, Trump continues to make surprising comments on people and countries and this shows his inadequate mastery of the concept of political discipline.
According to Seipel (2017), Trump’s approval rating has declined significantly since he won the U.S. presidential elections on November 2016. A research conducted by Gallup firm showed that Trump’s disapproval rating is the highest since the polling firm entered the media industry in 1953. On average, Trump’s overall approval rating stands at 41 percent for the several months he has been in office. Former President, Barack Obama had an overall rating of 63 percent as president for the first three months in office (Seipel, 2017). Max Weber’s Ideal theory of public administration calls for leaders to understand peoples’ practices and ideals to be able to effectively lead the. It seems that Trump has failed to understand the ideals and practices of some groups of people and this is why they continue to disapprove his presidency. Even today, Trump does not really seem convinced that Muslim immigrants are a part of the U.S.
In her analysis of the progress of Trumps presidency, Leada Gore says reiterates that Trumps disapproval rating has hit all time high since 1953 (Gore, 2017). Trumps approval rating of 41 percent is significantly law compared with the approval rating of previous president, such as Kennedy who had an approval rating of close to 75 percent. Trumps popularity is his Republican Party at 87 percent is also low compared with the popularity of previous presidents, such as Barack Obama who had a 90 percent popularity in his Democratic Party (Gore, 2017). The classical public administration theory by Max Weber and Woodrow Wilson proposes that the government should be run like a business. Trump’s method of leadership seems to borrow more from this theory and this is probably why he has canceled long-lives trade deal such as The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The problem is that his move has angered many people, especially those with families that rely on U.S. for trade. Many people also feel that Trump is wrongfully running the country like he has been running his real estate empire.
In his article posted on the Washington Post, Philip Bump explains that trumps approval ratings have gone to as low as 37 percent (Bump, 2017). The point made is that there are high chances that Trump may not get a second term in office if the elections were held today. The postmodern public administration theory emphasizes on the development of “policy networks” as a way of driving good administration and leadership. So far, president Trump has made numerous adjustment to healthcare, gun control, environment, and trade policies. Trump subscribes to this theory and therefore he has made many changes to the policies with the hope of improving the growth of the U.S.
According to Yourish (2017), Mr. trump’s approval rating has gone to as low as 38 percent since he was elected as the U.S. president. Trump’s high disapproval rating is the reason for the increased partisan divide in his presidency (Yourish, & Murray, 2017). The high disapproval rating has also been reflected in the increased divide between the Democratic and the Republican parties. Proponents of parallel gap practice theory are opinionated that practical knowledge cannot be gained from theories. Trump seems to be operating with this theory and this is why he has continuously politicians saying that they cannot effectively run a country.
Conclusion
Trump has achieved remarkable success to become U.S. president without having ever held a government office. Since he was elected, his disapproval ratings have increased dramatically. The increased disapproval has been blames on his surprising utterances that have displeased many. For Trump to gain increased approval, he may need to change his tactics to make angered people happy again. Such a move will get him closer to a second term in office.
- Bump, P. (2017). Trump’s Approval Hits a New Low of 36 Percent – But that’s not the Bad News. The Washington Post. Retrieved April 22, 2017 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/03/27/trumps-approval-hits-a-new-low-of-36-percent-but-thats-not-the-bad-news/?utm_term=.2727c0880f2d
- Gore, L. (2017). Donald Trump Approval Ratings: President’s Average Numbers Lowest since 1953, Poll Shows. Retrieved April 22, 2017 from http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/04/donald_trump_approval_rating_p_2.html
- Marcin, T. (2017). Donald Trump’s latest Approval Ratings in Election Swing States show how Unpopular he really is. Newsweek. Retrieved April 22, 2017 from http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trumps-latest-approval-ratings-election-swing-states-588108
- Seipel, B. (2017). Poll: Trump Gets Historically Low Approval Ratings. The Hill. Retrieved April 22, 2017 from http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/329712-poll-trump-has-lowest-approval-rating-of-any-president-after
- Yourish, K. & Murray, P. (2017). President Trump’s Record-Low Approval Rating Continues to Slide. The New York Times. Retrieved April 22, 2017 from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/02/28/us/politics/the-highs-and-lows-of-trumps-approval.html?_r=1&mtrref=undefined&gwh=647C8CAECCEC933A30FBE40E85235BB2&gwt=pay
