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Donald Trump unloads after worst polls in more than 60 years

Opinion polls showing a low approval rating for Donald Trump are fake news, the president says.

Opinion polls showing a low approval rating for Donald Trump are fake news, the president says. Photo: Getty

President Donald Trump has lambasted opinion polls showing he has a low approval rating, calling the media outlets publishing them “fake”.

The ABC News/Washington Post survey released on Sunday revealed that 53 per cent of Americans disapprove of Mr Trump’s leadership during his first 100 days in office.

Just 42 per cent of Americans approve of the way he is doing his job as president so far.

According to the survey, Mr Trump’s approval rating of 42 per cent is the lowest during the first 100 days of a US presidency since that of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953.

In addition, Mr Trump’s disapproval rating of 53 per cent is 14 points higher than former President Bill Clinton’s highest disapproval rating in April 1993, which was the worst such figure until the current administration.

But Mr Trump was quick to hit back at the damning figures.

“New polls out today are very good considering that much of the media is FAKE and almost always negative. Would still beat Hillary in popular vote,” he tweeted, adding “ABC News/Washington Post Poll (wrong big on election) said almost all stand by their vote on me & 53% said strong leader.”

Mr Trump said that he would win the popular vote over his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, if the election were to be held today. Ms Clinton beat the real estate tycoon by around three million votes in the November election, but lost the contest in the Electoral College.

The president’s first 100 days in office will be marked on April 29, a period that is historically considered to be a barometer of a new administration’s ability to govern.

‘It’s a different kind of a presidency’: Trump

For nearly 100 days, Mr Trump has rattled Washington and been chastened by its institutions.

He’s startled world leaders with his unpredictability and tough talk, but won their praise for a surprise strike on Syria.

He’s endured the steady drip of investigations and a seemingly endless churn of public personnel drama.

“It’s a different kind of a presidency,” Mr Trump said in an Oval Office interview with The Associated Press as he approached Saturday’s presidential benchmark.

Mr Trump, who campaigned on a promise of instant disruption, indirectly acknowledged that change doesn’t come quickly to Washington. He showed signs that he feels the weight of the office, discussing the “heart” required to do the job.

Although he retained his signature bravado and a salesman’s confidence in his upward trajectory, he displayed an awareness that many of his own lofty expectations for his first 100 days in office have not been met.

“It’s an artificial barrier. It’s not very meaningful,” he said.

Mr Trump’s early presidency has been dogged by FBI and congressional investigations into whether his campaign coordinated with Russians to tilt the race in his favour.

His three months-plus in office have amounted to a swift education in a world wholly unfamiliar to a 70-year-old who spent his career in real estate and reality television.

His two disputed travel ban executive orders are languishing, blocked by federal judges.

Mr Trump acknowledged that being commander in chief brings with it a “human responsibility” that he didn’t much bother with in business, requiring him to think through the consequences his decisions have on people and not simply the financial implications for his company’s bottom line.

“When it came time to, as an example, send out the 59 missiles, the Tomahawks in Syria,” Mr Trump said of his decision to strike a Syrian air base in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack.

“I’m saying to myself, ‘…This is death that’s involved because people could have been killed. This is risk that’s involved.”

“Here, everything, pretty much everything you do in government involves heart, whereas in business most things don’t involve heart,” he said. “In fact, in business you’re actually better off without it.”

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