Approval ratings for Donald Trump, Dems hitting the skids

March 30--President Trump's approval ratings have slid to a new low in the wake of his major health care defeat, with an ongoing Russia probe.

Trump's latest approval rating is at 35 percent, according to Gallup. Fifty-nine percent disapprove. That's the lowest point of any first-year president since at least Richard Nixon. Trump even surpassed familiar punching bag former President Bill Clinton, who posted a 37 percent rating in June 1993.

Gone is any afterglow from Trump's address to a joint session of Congress, which had been seen as perhaps the highest point of his presidency.

"He needs to have some wins, and he'll come back," said GOP strategist Dave Carney. "He's never going to be in the stratosphere because of how he got elected and how energized Democrats are. He's going to alienate the left to a high degree. ... Success will fix a lot of those (poll) problems."

Since the highly regarded address, Republicans suffered an embarrassing defeat in trying to replace Obamacare, and the probe into Russian meddling into the presidential campaign -- including what kind of contact Trump associates had with the Russians -- has continued to hang over the White House.

If Trump's numbers don't pick up, he could begin to be seen as a liability on the campaign trail during midterm elections next year, as Republicans ponder whether to embrace or reject him while stumping. And it could hurt his influence trying to build support for his agenda among the GOP on Capitol Hill.

But Carney cautioned that it's too early to jump to conclusions about Trump on just his 70th day in office and that many of the effects of his policies, including executive orders, will take time.

"People just need to take a chill pill," Carney said. "Those results won't be seen for a while."

Of course, Congress and Democrats are hardly winning any popularity contests themselves. An Economist/YouGov poll released yesterday has Congress' approval rating at a stunning 13 percent.

Just 30 percent have a positive view of the Democratic Party, which is scrambling to rebuild its image amid humiliating losses last fall, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll last month.

Both Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi had extremely low positive ratings -- in the teens, according to that poll.

Other surveys have Trump's approval ratings higher than Gallup's, albeit still disappointing.

An Economist/YouGov poll has his rating at 45 percent, while Rasmussen and Reuters both put him at 44 percent. In all three cases, more people disapprove of Trump's presidency than approve.

Meanwhile, Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump will officially join the administration as an unpaid employee with the title of assistant to the president. Ethics experts had raised questions about Ivanka serving in a more informal capacity.

Ivanka joins her husband, Jared Kushner, who is a senior adviser to Trump.

Herald wire services contributed to this report.

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