Trump approval down 6 points: Poll

US President Donald Trump's approval rating has fallen six points in the last month and stands at a new low among political independents, according to a new CNN poll.

Overall, just 36 per cent approved of the way the President was handling his job, down from 42 per cent in August, the poll revealed on Monday.

Among independents, the drop has been sharper, from 47 per cent approval last month to 31 per cent now. That's four points below his previous 2018 low of 35 per cent approval among political independents in CNN polling, and one point below his previous all-time low among independents in polling reached in November 2017.

Trump's numbers have slipped amid the release of an op-ed in The New York Times and reports about the Bob Woodward book that will be released on Tuesday.

Both paint a picture of a White House in chaos, with staffers actively thwarting the President's agenda.

A majority of Americans (58 per cent) have said that the writer of the op-ed, an unnamed senior administration official, ought to publicly identify themselves, and 55 per cent think it is inappropriate for an administration official to work against the agenda of the President.

A scant 13 per cent of Americans think that most administration officials were working against Trump in the ways described in the op-ed, while 59 per cent have said that at least some were acting that way. Just 17 per cent have said that it was not happening at all.

The President's favorability rating has also taken a hit in this poll, with 61 per cent saying they had unfavorable views of Trump, up from 55 per cent in June.

That unfavorable number is the worst since he won the presidency, and it matches the worst level seen during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The CNN poll was conducted between September 6 and September 9 among a random national sample of 1,003 adults reached on landlines or cellphones by a live interviewer.

--IANS

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