Warning signs mount for Trump reelection bid

‘They haven’t gotten his job approval over 50 percent, like Reagan,’ says one GOP pollster.

President Donald Trump has argued that many voters who support him did not vote in the midterm elections because his name was not on the ballot. Credit: Susan Walsh, AP Photo

Donald Trump insists the GOP’s midterm election shellacking had nothing to do with him. Things will be different, he says, when his name is actually on the ballot in 2020.

While it’s true that most presidents who see their party suffer major losses in their first midterm election get reelected anyway, Trump isn’t most presidents — and there are lots of blaring-red warning lights in this month’s election results for his bid for a second term.

Unlike most of his predecessors, he’s been persistently unpopular, with approval ratings mired in the 40-percent range — so far, he’s the only president in the modern era whose job approval ratings have never been over 50 percent, according to Gallup.