Donald Trump is struggling to win over Americans who spurned him in last month’s election — a significant departure from past presidents-elect who enjoyed broad support even after controversial victories.

Americans remain sharply divided in their feelings toward Trump, according to recent polls, and a new Gallup survey out Wednesday shows Americans are now split on Trump’s White House-in-waiting, putting him at risk of entering the presidency with much of the country lined up against him, his team and his key initiatives.


Previous presidents earned high marks for how they handled their transitions and enjoyed brief honeymoons upon entering the Oval Office. But in the Gallup poll, 48 percent of Americans said they approve of the way Trump is handling his transition — the same percentage that disapproves of Trump’s performance as president-elect. That contrasts with now-President Barack Obama’s 75 percent approval rating in mid-December 2008.

It’s also considerably worse than former President George W. Bush’s ratings during his truncated transition after the bitterly contested 2000 election. In early January 2001, nearly two-thirds of Americans, 65 percent, approved of Bush, who took office after losing the popular vote in a disputed race.

Trump lags his predecessors in large part because Democrats aren’t warming to him. Only 17 percent of self-identified Democrats approve of how Trump is handling the transition, along with just 46 percent of independents.

During the Obama transition, a majority of Republicans supported the newly elected president — 53 percent approved, joined by three-quarters of independents. And even 46 percent of Democrats got behind Bush after the Supreme Court intervened to halt the recount in Florida.

Voters’ grades for Trump were better in a McClatchy-Marist poll , also released on Wednesday. Forty-nine percent of registered voters — 88 percent of Republicans and 18 percent of Democrats — approve of the job Trump is doing on the transition. That’s larger than the 42 percent — 73 percent of Democrats but only 6 percent of Republicans — who disapprove.

Still, that lags Obama’s scores in a similar December 2008 Marist poll: Sixty-three percent approval to 10 percent disapproval.

Mixed perceptions and impressions of Trump extend beyond his transition. The HuffPost Pollster average of Trump’s favorability tilts negative: Forty-six percent favorable, versus 48 percent unfavorable. And in the four most recent surveys, Trump’s unfavorable rating has been 50 percent or greater, including the newest POLITICO/Morning Consult survey .

In that poll, conducted Dec. 8-11, 45 percent of registered voters viewed Trump favorably, and 51 percent had an unfavorable opinion of him. That’s better than Trump’s historically low favorability rating on Election Day, but only modestly.

And resistance to Trump remains strong. The percentage of voters who had a “very unfavorable” opinion of Trump, 39 percent, was much larger than the 26 percent who had a “very favorable” opinion of him.

Similar to the Gallup survey, self-identified Democrats continue to be among the most hostile to Trump. Fully 70 percent of Democrats have a “very unfavorable” impression of Trump in the POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.

Enthusiasm for Trump lags well behind. Only 56 percent of self-identified Republicans — and the same percentage of Trump voters — have a “very favorable” opinion of the president-elect.

That combination — resistant Democrats and unenthusiastic Republicans — has denied Trump the broad popularity past presidents-elect have enjoyed. In early January 2009, a Gallup survey showed Obama with a 78 percent favorability rating. Even Bush’s personal favorability hit 62 percent in the days before his inauguration in 2001.

Trump’s transition has mostly been dominated by personnel decisions. He has thus far tapped the majority of his Cabinet and some of his White House staff.

Many of Trump’s Cabinet choices have come from the private sector — such as Rex Tillerson, Trump’s pick for secretary of state — and are unknown to most Americans. The only two Cabinet picks with significant public presences are two of Trump’s one-time rivals for the GOP nomination: Energy Secretary-designate Rick Perry and Housing and Urban Development Secretary-designate Ben Carson.

But neither is broadly popular enough to provide Trump with a halo. Before Perry, the former Texas governor, ended his campaign last year, Gallup found only 24 percent of Americans had a favorable opinion of him in late August and early September 2015, fewer than the 37 percent who viewed him unfavorably.

Carson’s favorables were higher before he wrapped up his campaign in February of this year: Forty-one percent, compared to 29 percent unfavorable.

Many of Obama’s picks during his transition were equally unknown to the public, but his selection of Clinton as secretary of state earned him high marks. While Clinton’s favorable ratings at the close of this year’s campaign were poor, 65 percent of Americans had a positive impression of her in early January 2009.

Gallup, in its release on Wednesday, notes that approval ratings for the transitions of presidents-elect typically run ahead of their initial approval ratings as president. Obama’s transition approval was at 75 percent in December 2008 and ticked up to 83 percent on the eve of his inauguration. But his initial job-approval rating was just 68 percent. Bush’s transition approvals were above 60 percent, but he debuted at 57 percent approval after taking office. Former President Bill Clinton’s transition was viewed favorably by roughly two-thirds of Americans, but he opened his presidency with 58 percent approval.

With Americans polarized so sharply on Trump’s transition, the new president will almost assuredly be denied the honeymoon Obama, Bush and Clinton enjoyed. But his approval rating could also be more durable in the early days of his presidency, avoiding the 5-to-10-point drop Obama, Bush and Clinton saw.