Donald Trump is less popular than Nancy Pelosi for the first time during his presidency

Authored by edition.cnn.com and submitted by haxamin
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(CNN) First things first: The theme song of the week is The Blind Boys of Alabama's Way Down in the Hole from The Wire.

The same poll also showed that President Donald Trump's favorable rating is 40% to unfavorable rating of 58%. That means his net favorability rating is -18 points.

What's the point: The leading figures in the US government right now are not popular. For the first time during Trump's presidency, though, Trump is more disliked than Pelosi.

Pelosi has become more popular since the Democrats won in November. Her net favorability rating rose in Gallup's polling from -24 points in June to -10 points now in Gallup polling. In fact, it's Pelosi's best net favorability rating in a Gallup poll in 10 years. The most recent CNN and NBC/Wall Street Journal polls have made similar findings: Pelosi is on the rise.

It shouldn't be too surprising that Pelosi numbers are up. Presidents often receive a boost in their ratings after they win an election. It would follow then that an incoming speaker would see their numbers climb as well when her or his party wins an election. Of course, just like with a president, this may merely be a honeymoon period for Pelosi. In other words, her numbers could fall.

Pelosi, however, may benefit from being seen as Trump's chief foil. Her net favorability climbed 25 points among Democrats after the election -- much more than it did among independents or Republicans. There's no reason to think that she won't continue to be one of Trump's main adversaries over the next year, which could keep her ratings among Democrats (and thus her overall ratings) up.

Of course, it's not as if Pelosi is popular. A -10 point net favorability rating is still pretty bad. (Her net favorability rating of -12 points in the last CNN poll and -13 points in the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll are even worse.)

Politics, though, are rarely a referendum on congressional leaders . If anything, they're a referendum on the President. Trump continues to have poor ratings just like he had when his party lost control of the House in November.

Vlines1390 on January 5th, 2019 at 22:14 UTC »

OMG, can I watch when someone tells him that? Please?

whileImworking on January 5th, 2019 at 21:53 UTC »

That explains why Trump said the shutdown tantrum could last for a year or more.

Cyclone_1 on January 5th, 2019 at 21:31 UTC »

Wow. I didn't realize Pelosi was that unpopular. Truthfully.