Donald Trump made history on Sunday when a new poll put his approval rating at an all-time low for a US president during their first six months in office.
Only 36 per cent of Americans approve of the job Mr Trump is doing, according to a new Washington Post and ABC poll conducted between Tuesday and Thursday last week. The number is lower than for any previous US president in polls dating back 70 years. Even for Mr Trump himself, it represents a 6 per cent drop in his popularity from April.
Mr Trump attacked the poll on Twitter, saying on the one hand that “almost 40% [approval] is not bad at this time”, before discrediting the poll as “just about the most inaccurate poll around election time!".
The poll puts Mr Trump's approval rating 23 percentage points lower than both former presidents Barack Obama and George W Bush at this time in their presidency.
Despite Mr Trump’s talk about “great G20” meetings in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network on Thursday last week, the poll also showed that 48 per cent of Americans “see the country’s leadership in the world as weaker since Trump was inaugurated, compared with 27 per cent who say it is stronger.”
At the heart of Mr Trump's problems appears to be accusations of Russian involvement in last year's presidential election. One week after The New York Times revealed that Donald Trump Jr met with a Russian lawyer to discuss damaging information on Hillary Clinton, Americans are growing more suspicious of the Trump campaign's ties to Moscow.
More than six in 10 (63 per cent) of respondents in the poll said Mr Trump Jr’s meeting with the Russian lawyer was inappropriate. Sixty per cent also said that Russia tried to influence the presidential election in favour of the Trump campaign, up 4 per cent from a survey conducted in April. More worrisome for the administration is that “roughly four in 10 believe members of Mr Trump’s campaign intentionally aided Russian efforts to influence the election, though suspicions have changed little since the spring”, the poll said.
These numbers are also constraining Mr Trump’s ability to reach out to Moscow for policy co-ordination on Syria, Ukraine and a host of other issues. Almost “two in three say they do not trust the president much, including 48 per cent who say they do not trust the president at all” in negotiations with world leaders, including Mr Putin.
The only good news for Mr Trump in the poll is how his opponents, the Democrats, are viewed. Only 37 per cent of Americans “say the Democratic Party currently stands for something, while 52 per cent viewed it as it 'just stands against Trump'”.
The poll will likely have Republicans scrambling and worrying about the 2018 midterm elections in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. "If Trump's at 36% approve/58% disapprove, with 32% approval among independents, GOP won't hold the House," Bill Kristol, a Republican pundit and editor-at-large of The Weekly Standard conservative news magazine tweeted on Sunday.
Already, the Republican Senate leadership has delayed a vote planned for next week on repealing ObamaCare — a key promise of the Trump campaign — after failing to get 50 votes in support of the new bill. According to Sunday's poll, half of Americans said they prefer ObamaCare over the new Republican plan to replace it, with the plan only supported by 24 per cent of respondents.
Neither the multiple investigations into Russian involvement in the presidential election - including by the FBI, US justice department and congressional committees — nor efforts to repeal ObamaCare are expected to conclude soon, and could therefore continue to hamstring Mr Trump’s agenda for some time to come and cut into his approval ratings even further.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
THE BIO:
Sabri Razouk, 74
Athlete and fitness trainer
Married, father of six
Favourite exercise: Bench press
Must-eat weekly meal: Steak with beans, carrots, broccoli, crust and corn
Power drink: A glass of yoghurt
Role model: Any good man
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
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How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League quarter-final second leg:
Juventus 1 Ajax 2
Ajax advance 3-2 on aggregate
SPECS
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Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
How to join and use Abu Dhabi’s public libraries
• There are six libraries in Abu Dhabi emirate run by the Department of Culture and Tourism, including one in Al Ain and Al Dhafra.
• Libraries are free to visit and visitors can consult books, use online resources and study there. Most are open from 8am to 8pm on weekdays, closed on Fridays and have variable hours on Saturdays, except for Qasr Al Watan which is open from 10am to 8pm every day.
• In order to borrow books, visitors must join the service by providing a passport photograph, Emirates ID and a refundable deposit of Dh400. Members can borrow five books for three weeks, all of which are renewable up to two times online.
• If users do not wish to pay the fee, they can still use the library’s electronic resources for free by simply registering on the website. Once registered, a username and password is provided, allowing remote access.
• For more information visit the library network's website.
