High negatives for Trump, record positives for Obama in new poll

As President-elect Trump prepares to take office, his highest disapproval ratings are among women. Here, Trump speaks to a May rally in Lynden. (GRANT HINDSLEY, seattlepi.com) As President-elect Trump prepares to take office, his highest disapproval ratings are among women. Here, Trump speaks to a May rally in Lynden. (GRANT HINDSLEY, seattlepi.com) Photo: SEATTLEPI.COM, GRANT HINDSLEY Photo: SEATTLEPI.COM, GRANT HINDSLEY Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close High negatives for Trump, record positives for Obama in new poll 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

A majority of Americans disapprove of Donald Trump's performance as President-elect, while President Obama is going out with a robust approval rating, according to a national Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday.

Just 37 percent give a thumbs-up to Trump's transition work while 51 percent disapprove of the job he is doing. The nation's men are evenly split at 43-43 percent, while a whopping 59 percent of women disapprove while only 31 percent approve.

The poll's findings on President Obama go in the opposite direction.

Fifty-five percent approve of the job being done by the 44th President, while just 39 percent disapprove of Obama's performance, his highest score in seven years.

"President Obama leaves the White House a lot more popular than Donald Trump is as he crosses the threshold and saddles up for the most important job in the world," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of polling at Quinnipiac.

Other findings show that Trump is not trusted by the American people.

Forty-five percent told Quinnipiac that Trump will be a worse president than Obama, compared with 34 percent who believe he will be better. Fifteen percent said he will be about the same.

Just 12 percent predict Trump will be a "great" president, with 20 percent of those polled saying he will be a "good" chief executive. By contrast, 32 percent believe Trump will be "bad" and 20 percent "not so good."

By a 53-39 percent margin, Americans do not believe Trump is homest. By a 52-44 percent figure, they do not believe the billionaire real estate mogul cares about the average American. Each of the disapproval figures us up from November.

Sixty-two percent of those surveyed do not believe Trump is level headed, no surprise given the stream of Tweets and insults from the President-elect. By a two-to-one margin --- highest among young people -- Americans say Trump should shut down his Twitter account.

Only 40 percent of those surveyed feel Trump's policies will work to unite the American people: 54 percent predicted he will divide an alrady-divided country.

The Quinnipiac Poll was taken January 5-9, and involved interviews with 899 voters. It has a margin of error of plus/minus 3.3 percent.