Story Highlights Approval below 40% in 17 states

Highest approval in West Virginia, North Dakota and South Dakota

Lowest approval in Vermont and Massachusetts

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- President Donald Trump, who has averaged 40% job approval since his inauguration, received approval ratings of 50% or higher in 17 states in the first half of 2017. Residents in an equal number of states gave him approval ratings below 40%. In 16 states, his ratings ranged between 40% and 49%.

Consistent with the broader geographic patterns of Republican strength across the country, some of Trump's highest approval ratings tend to be in Southern, Plains and Mountain West states. His lowest ratings are primarily in Northeast and West Coast states.

The results are based on Gallup Daily tracking from Jan. 20 through June 30, including interviews with more than 81,000 U.S. adults. Gallup interviewed at least 220 residents in each state during this period, including 500 or more in 39 states. Gallup weighted each state sample to ensure it is demographically representative of the adult population. The full results for each state are included at the end of the article.

During the Jan. 20-June 30 time period, residents in West Virginia (60%), North Dakota (59%) and South Dakota (57%) gave Trump his highest approval ratings. Montana, Wyoming and Alabama all had average approval ratings of 55% or higher.

States With Highest Trump Job Approval Ratings, January-June 2017 Approval % West Virginia 60 North Dakota 59 South Dakota 57 Montana 56 Wyoming 56 Alabama 55 Oklahoma 54 Kansas 53 Kentucky 53 Arkansas 53 Idaho 53 Gallup Daily

Residents in Vermont and Massachusetts gave Trump his lowest average approval ratings -- both below 30% -- with Maryland, California, and New York close behind at 30% or 31%.

States With Lowest Trump Job Approval Ratings, January-June 2017 Approval % Vermont 26 Massachusetts 29 Maryland 30 California 30 New York 31 Connecticut 34 Hawaii 35 New Jersey 36 Illinois 36 Washington 36 Gallup Daily

Trump largely owed his victory in the 2016 presidential election to his wins in three key Rust Belt states -- Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin -- that had not backed a Republican for president since the 1980s. In these states, his January-June approval ratings were just slightly above his overall average of 40%, including 43% in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and 42% in Michigan.

Bottom Line

Trump's time in office has been filled with controversy, including his executive orders on immigration, his firing of FBI Director James Comey, ongoing questions about the Trump campaign's ties with Russia, and his continued flouting of political decorum. Trump and the Republican majority have yet to achieve many of their hoped-for policy goals, including repeal of the Affordable Care Act and tax reform. Through it all, at least half of the residents in 17 states approved of the job he was doing. But in just as many states, his approval rating was in the 30% range, if not lower.

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.

These data are available in Gallup Analytics.

Explore President Trump's approval ratings in depth and compare them with those of past presidents in the Gallup Presidential Job Approval Center.

Survey Methods Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Jan. 20-June 30, 2017, on the Gallup U.S. Daily survey, with a random sample of 81,155 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±1 percentage point at the 95% confidence level. Margins of error for individual states are no greater than ±8 percentage points and are ±4 percentage points in most states. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting. Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 70% cellphone respondents and 30% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods. Learn more about how the Gallup U.S. Daily works.