This story was originally published by the Nashville Banner. Sign up for their newsletter at nashvillebanner.com/newsletters.
The latest Vanderbilt Poll found that just shy of half of Tennessee voters approve of President Donald Trump’s performance, down from the previous poll and dipping below 50% for the first time in Trump’s second term.
According to the results released May 20, independents and non-MAGA Republicans have both become less satisfied with the president, dipping 6-7% each, while Republicans remain highly in favor of the president overall. Independents are now at 36% approval.
The poll conducted in late April showed that just 49% of respondents approved of the president across all political beliefs, a decrease of 7 percentage points since the same question was asked in November, the first minority approval rating for the president in Tennessee since December 2017. Fifty-eight percent of respondents also indicated that they believe the country is generally moving in the wrong direction, up 6 points from November.