This Week in Polls: Guess Who’s Most Unpopular in the GOP?

As Dominic wrote earlier this week, the #FakeNews media has run with a ridiculous narrative that President Trump’s approval ratings have plummeted because of the GOP’s failure to pass the new health care replacement bill. However, polls demonstrate that this narrative is, in fact, misleading — voters are not blaming the failure of the health care bill on the president.

According to poll tracking by The Huffington Post, President Trump’s favorability rating has barely shifted since the beginning of March.

TRUMP FAVORABILITY RATING AVERAGES:

• Nov. 13: Unfavorable 54.9%, Favorable 41.4% (-13.5%)
• Jan 3: Unfavorable 50.0%, Favorable 43.4% (-6.6%)
• Feb 2: Unfavorable 49.8%, Favorable 44.1% (-5.7%)
• Mar 1: Unfavorable 50.9%, Favorable 43.5% (-7.4%)
• Mar 27: Unfavorable 51.3%, Favorable 43.6% (-7.7%)

According to this metric, Trump has actually improved his standing with voters since the election by nearly six points, and his approval rating has remained relatively stable since his Inauguration.

But another GOP leader has seen a far more significant drop in 2017, especially in March — Paul Ryan’s net favorability rating has decreased four points since January.

RYAN FAVORABILITY RATING AVERAGES:

• Nov. 13: Unfavorable 40.9%, Favorable 32.8% (-8.1%)
• Jan 3: Unfavorable 40.1%, Favorable 33.6% (-6.5%)
• Feb 4: Unfavorable 40.5%, Favorable 35.9% (-4.6%)
• Mar 1: Unfavorable 43.2%, Favorable 36.1% (-7.1%)
• Mar 25: Unfavorable 46.4%, Favorable 36.0% (-10.4%)

In fact, Speaker Ryan is more unpopular than ever before. Ryan has never experienced a double-digit gap in favorability until now. It’s also notable that The Huffington Post trend has, as of this writing, not yet added several ugly polls for Ryan, including a March 26-27 Rasmussen poll showing 52 percent of Americans disapproving of Ryan versus just 39 percent approving, a 13-point negative spread, and a March 27-28 YouGov/Economist poll — which Team Ryan better hope is an outlier — showing 52 percent of Americans disapproving versus just 29 percent of Americans approving, a jaw-dropping 23-point negative spread.

While the media focuses on the popularity or unpopularity of Donald Trump, the unreported story remains that Trump isn’t even the least popular Republican in Washington — that mantle now officially belongs to Speaker Paul Ryan, whose approval ratings are dropping faster than you can say “The American Health Care Act.”

Photos via Gage Skidmore