
A new 50-state poll shows Donald Trump has negative approval ratings in two Southern states that solidly voted for him in 2016.

Donald Trump has been a wildly unpopular president from the very beginning.

After a divisive victory tainted by a popular vote loss and the scandal of Russian collusion to undermine the election, Trump did not enjoy a honeymoon period with the American people, as most new presidents do.

His disastrous attempts to destroy health care and his ongoing tantrums on social media only added fuel to the fire.


Trump has already set a record for the lowest overall six-month approval ratings of any president since polling began. And now, a Gallup poll of each of the 50 states reveals more bad news for him.

According to the poll, Trump is viewed unfavorably in two states which form the base of Republican electoral and congressional power: Texas and Mississippi.

Respondents in Mississippi view Trump unfavorably 48 to 46, while Texans disapprove of Trump by 51 to 42.

Trump won both states decisively in 2016, although his margin in Texas was much smaller than Republican margins in either of President Barack Obama's election campaigns. In Mississippi, meanwhile, Trump actually outperformed Romney. The fact he is underwater in either of these states is a remarkable shift.

The poll further finds Trump is only above 50 percent in 17 states, and down decisively in the Rust Belt states that flipped red in 2016. The summary concludes with a warning to Trump and his Republican supporters:

Trump is hardly a conventional politician, but his patterns of support at the state level mostly reflect traditional Republican-Democrat differences. Although 2020 is a long way off, for him to successfully win re-election, historical patterns suggest his overall 40% rating would need to rise closer to 50%. He would also need to shore up his support in the key Rust Belt states that delivered the Electoral College win to him. In those states, his job approval is slightly above 40%, but barely so, raising questions of whether he can carry them in 2020.

Conventional wisdom has long held that Trump has an hard floor on his base of support because his voters are completely unpersuadable. The fact that his ratings are down in solid red states should cast doubt on this idea.

The numbers are clear. Even in the Republican strongholds of the South, the American people are running out of patience for Trump's antics. And with that comes electoral consequences.