Trump's approval rating plunges to historic low of 35%

US President Donald Trump's approval rating sank to a new low in a new CNN poll, earning the approval of just 35 per cent of Americans less than a year into his first term.

The poll's revelations on Tuesday showed a significant drop from the 45 per cent approval rating that Trump had in March, shortly after taking office.

It marks the worst approval rating in a December of any elected president's first year in the White House by a wide margin and only the second time since the dawn of modern polling that a president's approval rating sank under 50 per cent at this point.

According to the CNN poll, a broad 59 per cent of Americans said they disapprove of how Trump is handling his job as President.

George W. Bush ended his first calendar year at 86 per cent approval, John F. Kennedy hit 77 per cent, George H.W. Bush reached 71 per cent and Dwight Eisenhower hit 69 per cent.

Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama all finished their first calendar year with approval ratings in the mid-to-high 50s.

Ronald Reagan, previously holder of the worst approval rating in December of a first year in the White House, finished his first calendar year at 49 per cent.

Trump maintains strong approval numbers among those in his own party - 85 per cent - but struggles with independents at 33 per cent and Democrats at just 4 per cent.

The CNN Poll was conducted by from December 14 to 17 among a random national sample of 1,001 adults reached on landlines or cellphones by a live interviewer.