Donald Trump's Approval Rating Trails President Obama's; 32 Percent Say He Will Be 'Bad'

Just before Donald Trump's first press conference as president-elect, a new poll from Quinnipiac University shows him struggling to gain the confidence of voters.

Most troubling of all for the president-elect are the headline numbers. American voters in the poll disapprove of the job Trump is doing during the transition 51- 37.

You might dismiss this as deriving from the fact that everyone has a bad impression of Washington and politicians, and this negativity is rubbing off on him. But the poll has a very useful comparison: The same voters approve of the job President Obama is doing 55-39.

The best numbers Trump can point to in the new polling show that large majorities of the country regard him as intelligent and strong. However, compared to a poll taken at the end of November, Quinnipiac found fewer voters saying he was levelheaded and fewer people saying he has good leadership skills.

Generally, the respondents are confident about the economy in the next four years, with 52 percent saying they are optimistic. Around 47 percent say they believe Trump will help the economy, while 37 percent say he will hurt it.

But again, the comparison to Obama is not particularly favorable. Asked whether Trump will be a worse president, 45 percent said yes, 34 percent said he will be better and 15 percent said he will be about the same.

Speaking more generally, 12 percent think Trump will be a great president, and 3o percent think he will be "good." The pessimistic view on this question, however, wins out: 20 percent say he will be "not so good," and 32 percent say he will be "bad."

"President Barack Obama leaves the White House a lot more popular than Donald Trump as he crosses the threshold and saddles up for the most important job in the world," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

On the topic of Trump's tweeting, 64 percent of voters say he should stop using the social media platform, while 32 percent don't mind. Perhaps ironically, younger voters, those most inclined to use social media, most uniformly oppose the president-elect's use of Twitter. Republicans are more slit on the issue, saying 49 - 45 percent that he should keep tweeting.

The poll was conducted with cell phone and landline live interviews with 899 voters nationwide. The margin of error is +/- 3.3 percent.

Read poll's press release here>>

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore