President Donald Trump's job approval rating is at 40 percent. | Getty Poll: 45 percent say Trump presidency off to poor start

Almost half of Americans believe President Donald Trump is off to a poor start, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday.

Forty-five percent believe the president is off to a poor start, while 19 percent say his presidency is off to a fair start. A combined 35 percent believe Trump's presidency is off to either a good or great start.


The poll comes several days before Trump's 100-day mark, which is April 29.

In 2009, a combined 54 percent of Americans said Barack Obama was off to a good or great start within his first 100 days as president. Twenty-five percent said Obama was off to a fair start, while 21 percent called his performance to that point poor.

In the NBC/WSJ poll, Trump's job approval rating, 40 percent, is down by 4 percentage points compared to last month. Overall, 54 percent disapprove of Trump's job performance.

In comparison, Obama's approval rating stood at 61 percent at this point in his administration, while George W. Bush's was at 56 percent and Bill Clinton's was at 52 percent.

In the new poll, Trump's highest approval rating — 62 percent — was for the administration's military action in Syria in response to a chemical-weapons attack that killed more than 80 people.

In addition, 50 percent of all Americans say they approve of Trump's handling of Syria.

The NBC/Wall Street Journal poll was conducted April 17-20, with 900 adults surveyed. More than 400 were interviewed by cellphone. The margin of error is 3.3 percentage points.