Trump’s approval woes

Take a look at Trump’s approval rating at fiftyplusone.  I have two observations that seem worth sharing.

First, Trump’s approval has steadily declined throughout his term.  The decline is so steady that it is difficult to see the impact of particular events.  Perhaps the steady decline reflects the sheer number of unpopular decisions Trump is making, the firehose of outrage.  In any event, the pattern differs markedly from his approval in his first term, which tended to be flat, but was punctuated with dips around a handful of unpopular decisions (the tax cut bill, the vote to eliminate the ACA, the government shutdown, and then of course January 6^th). 

Second, Trump’s approval rating has continued to decline even as his base has narrowed, and at a similar rate.  This strikes me as at least somewhat surprising.  One might have expected the drop in his support to slow as his softer supporters dropped off and his remaining supporters were more hard-core.  But the rate of defection among his supporters has not changed much.  At this point he must be losing people who are part of his “base”, whatever exactly we take that to mean.