Story by Collin Morris, News Editor
After 96 days in office, President Donald Trump is on pace to finish his first 100 days with the lowest approval rating of any president in modern history.
According to an ABC News/Washington Post poll released Sunday, April 23, Trump holds a 42 percent approval rating and a 53 percent disapproval rating. The pollster says his numbers are the lowest of any president through their first 100 days since they began collecting data in 1945.
In comparison, President Barack Obama had a 69 percent approval rating in an equivalent time period. Presidents Harry Truman and John Kennedy recorded the highest ratings with 87 and 78 percent, respectively.
President Gerald Ford was the lone executive to come within 10 points of Trump. He finished with a 48 percent approval rating after succeeding Richard Nixon upon Nixon’s resignation after the Watergate scandal.
Another poll performed by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal in conjunction with Hart Research Associations revealed a 40 percent approval rating among 900 respondents.
On Wednesday, April 26, whispers of tax reform elevated to broad policy discussion as the Trump Administration announced its intent to begin pushing for 15 percent cut to the corporate tax rate. The cut will apply to businesses of any size, coinciding with Trump’s campaign promise.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin began making appearances to discuss the cuts immediately Wednesday morning.
“It will be the biggest tax cut and the largest tax reform in the history of our country,” Mnuchin said.
Supporters, including many Republicans in Congress, say the cuts will resurge the economy while opponents suggest they will only add to the national debt and deficit.
A private analysis done by the Joint Committee on Taxation, a nonpartisan group, and obtained by CNN determined the cuts will increase the federal deficit for over 10 years, meaning the bill will require bilateral support to pass, per Senate rules.
The plan will also cut the top income tax rate from 39.6 percent to 35 percent and double the amount taxpayers can deduct, according to the AP.
One prominent pillar of Trump’s presidential platform is weathering another test after reports by the AP revealed Dow Chemical, an international pesticide company, wrote a $1 million check contribution funding Trump’s inauguration and coalescing celebrations and spent $13.6 million on lobbying in 2016.
Also according to the AP, the company’s CEO, Andrew Liveris, is one of the many businessmen playing an active role in the Trump administration — he currently heads a White House manufacturing working group.
Dow Chemical has made efforts to shield various chemicals found to endanger thousand of plant and animal organisms from regulation and recently collaborated with other companies to ask the White House to abandon a risk study evaluating the effects of numerous chemicals.
On Friday, April 21, however, Mnuchin announced the Treasury Department has denied a request from ExxonMobil to bypass standing U.S. sanctions and begin drilling in Russia.
Also, on Earth Day, Trump defected from his two predecessors by failing to acknowledge climate change.
“My administration is committed to advancing scientific research that leads to a better understanding of our environment and of environmental risks,” Trump said in his official statement.
He then took to Twitter to elaborate on the substance of his speech.
Meanwhile thousands walked in localized participations of the global “March for Science” movement.