President Donald Trump has claimed that he would “still” beat Hillary Clinton in the popular vote for the US election despite losing it by more than 2.8 million votes to the Democratic candidate.
Mr Trump’s claim comes after fresh approval ratings show he is heading for the title of the least-popular president since 1945 as he nears his first 100 days in office.
No post-war president has polled as low as Mr Trump in the first three months of office. Despite this, Mr Trump tweeted: “New polls out today are very good considering that much of the media is fake and almost always negative. Would still beat Hillary in popular vote. ABC News/Washington Post Poll (wrong big on election) said almost all stand by their vote on me & 53% said strong leader.”
Final polls showed that Mr Trump lost the US election popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.8 million votes. It marks the biggest margin recorded for any candidate to have lost the popular vote but won the election.
According to the ABC News/Washington Post poll, Mr Trump’s approval rating is just 42 per cent. In comparison, former President Barack Obama’s was 69 per cent as he approached his first 100 days in office in 2009. No peacetime president’s approval rating has dipped below 50 per cent at or around the 100 day mark apart from Gerald Ford, who polled at 47 per cent after he succeeded - and pardoned – Richard Nixon.
The poll, which was conducted over three days in April from a sample of 1,004 adults, showed that 53 per cent of people see Mr Trump as a “strong leader,” though this is significantly lower than his predecessor – 77 per cent of people polled found Mr Obama to be a “strong leader” around his 100 days.
Despite Mr Trump’s record-low ratings, 96 per cent of his supporters said they would vote for him again today. Only 85 per cent of Mrs Clinton’s supporters said they would back her again, with most self-reported voters who supported the Democrat claiming they would either vote for a third-party candidate or simply not vote.
Were an election be held today, the 46-44 Clinton to Trump split of the popular vote would become 40-43 in the president’s favour, though the Washington Post reported this kind of drop off for a losing candidate is “not hugely surprising”.
