Gallup poll shows historic gap between parties on president’s approval rating

The gap between Democrats’ and Republicans’ approval of the president’s job performance has never been higher, according to a new Gallup poll.

In the survey released Thursday, just 3 percent of Democrats but a whopping 95 percent of Republicans approve of the job President Trump has done so far.

That 92-point gap is larger than any other president has seen in the history of Gallup’s polling, including 6-points higher than the divide in the last Gallup survey released before the 2012 election, when 6 percent of Republicans and 92 percent of Democrats supported then-President Obama’s job performance. Obama would go on to win reelection days later by just under 5 million votes, winning the Electoral College by more than 100.

One advantage that Trump’s predecessor had over him was a favorable view from more than half of registered independents; in the final survey before the 2012 election, Obama’s job performance was supported by 51 percent of independents, compared to 41 percent who say the same about Trump in Thursday’s Gallup poll.

Gallup’s poll was conducted Oct. 16-27 among 1,018 U.S. adults. The survey’s margin of error is 4 percentage points.

Trump has only a narrow path to reelection on Tuesday. Polls show him trailing Democratic nominee Joe Biden both nationally and in most swing states, and Biden also has a substantial cash advantage.