Donald Trump's favorability numbers now higher than Hillary Clinton's



TIMELINE: Highs & lows of Donald Trump's first 100 days in office ... less A new poll shows former Democratic candidate for president has a favorability rating of 35 percent with registered voters, while newly-elected president Donald Trump has a 45 percent favorability rating. (AP) A new poll shows former Democratic candidate for president has a favorability rating of 35 percent with registered voters, while newly-elected president Donald Trump has a 45 percent favorability rating. ... more Image 1 of / 56 Caption Close Donald Trump's favorability numbers now higher than Hillary Clinton's 1 / 56 Back to Gallery

President Donald Trump has had a trying first six weeks as president. But at least Americans don't seem to have buyer's remorse.

As Hillary Clinton makes her reemergence with a speech at the Kennedy Center in Washington on Wednesday night, a new poll shows her with her worst image numbers ever. The Suffolk University poll shows that just 35 percent of registered voters have a favorable opinion of Clinton, compared with 55 percent who have an unfavorable one.

The same poll, meanwhile, shows Trump - for the first time ever - in significantly better shape than Clinton: 45 percent favorable and 47 percent unfavorable.

Even as Trump beat Clinton in the 2016 election, his image numbers were often worse than hers, and he, of course, wound up losing the popular vote, 48 percent to 46 percent.

A couple of polls toward the end of the 2016 race showed Clinton in territory similar to where she is in the new poll, but Suffolk's own polling at the time showed her in relatively good shape: 46 percent favorable vs. 47 percent unfavorable. This is also the first public poll testing views of her since December - when her loss was fresher in people's minds and Trump hadn't yet assumed the presidency. And, if anything, Clinton's poll numbers have gotten worse over that span.

The decline is due to both Democrats and independents apparently souring on Clinton. While 88 percent of Democrats and 32 percent of independents liked Clinton in October, today those numbers are 74 percent and 25 percent, respectively. Clearly, even some who voted for Clinton - she won 89 percent of Democrats' votes and 42 percent of independents' - don't have as much affection for her as they did at the tail end of the election.

This isn't terribly unusual, of course. Even years after his loss in 2012, Mitt Romney's numbers were depressed. But his worst poll after 2012 from a high-quality pollster showed him just 11 points "underwater" - i.e., with more unfavorable views than favorable ones. Clinton's current gap is 20 points.

None of which is to say that she can't right the ship. But for now, Clinton is a uniquely unpopular figure in American politics - more uniquely unpopular, it seems, than the uniquely unpopular figure to whom she lost.