The 2016 election is already infamous for conflicting polls and it appears that this problem has still not been fixed as polling on President-Elect Donald Trump’s post election approval rating is conflicting wildly in recent days from one poll to another.
Polling for the first week of December find a wide array of results. According to the RealClearPolitics.com averaging of polls, Trump is either down a whopping 26 percent or in the positive zone at plus 7 percent.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll, for instance, places Trump at +4, while Bloomberg has him at an even higher +7.
On the other hand, PPP has the President-elect down at -8. Other polls give Trump even worse ratings with McClatchy/Marist finding him a -25 and Gallup at a dismal -27.
Reportage on the first weeks of Trump’s post-election ratings are also all over the map.
Just over a week ago Politico was reporting that Trump’s approval rating had “soared” since November 8, reporting that the POLITICO/Morning Consult poll found a “dramatic uptick since the election.”
Politico was hardly alone. At the end of November, CNN published a story entitled, “Looking ahead to a Trump presidency, a majority sees change,” and The Christian Science Monitor, explained to readers, “Why Trump’s popularity is rising.”
Yet only days later and without any real change in the polls, CNN reversed itself with a piece entitled, “Trump’s approval lower than previous incoming presidents.”
Politico also contradicted its earlier story with a new one proclaiming, “Trump’s transition approval rating trails Obama and Bush.”
In another case, New York magazine posted its own headlined, “Trump Is the Least Popular President-elect in Modern American History.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.