Trump's approval rating with his base just hit a new low after his botched Charlottesville response

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August 23, 2017 3:29 PM

President Donald Trump's approval rating has sunk to its lowest point since he took office, following his controversial response to a white supremacist rally.

Donald Trump.

President Donald Trump's approval rating has sunk to its lowest point since he took office in the Morning Consult/Politico poll following his controversial response to a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia earlier this month.

Just 39% of respondents to the poll said they approve of Trump's performance as president. Fifty-six percent said they disapprove.

Last week in the same poll, 44% of voters said they approved of Trump.

The dip in Trump's approval rating largely came from his own party —only 73% of Republicans said they approve of the job he's doing, compared to 81% in last week's poll. Trump's approval rating among Democrats and independents slid only one percentage point.

Overall, more than double the number of voters said they strongly disapproved of the president than said they strongly approved of him.

But voters' reactions to Trump's response to Charlottesville, in which he blamed the violence on both the white supremacists ralliers and the anti-racist counterprotesters, was largely partisan. Two-thirds of Republicans said Trump's comments were either very or somewhat appropriate, while 70% of Democrats said the remarks were very or somewhat inappropriate.

Notably, 54% of Republicans agreed with Trump that "both sides" of the conflict are to blame. Just 24% of them laid the blame on the white supremacists. Meanwhile, 64% of Democrats blamed the KKK, neo-Nazi, and white nationalist ralliers.

But large majorities of voters agree that political violence and racism are widespread, and just 32% said the country is headed in the right direction — a new low.

The survey of 1,987 registered voters was conducted between August 17 and 19 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

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