Trump's job approval rating for his first year was the worst of any US president since Gallup started measuring it

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

• President Donald Trump's job approval rating averaged 38.4% in his first year. 
• His rating is the lowest for a president's first year since Bill Clinton averaged 49.3% in 1993-94.
• Despite the low numbers, Trump continues to tout economic successes, including strong GDP growth, millions of new jobs created, and trillions of dollars in new wealth in the stock market.

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President Donald Trump ended his first year in office with the lowest average approval rating of any other US president since Gallup started regularly tracking job approval ratings in 1945.

Trump's first-year approval ratings averaged 38.4%, more than 10 points below what is now the second worst rating — former President Bill Clinton's first-year average of 49.3%.

Gallup noted that presidents usually benefit from a boost in public support during their first year in office thanks to what's known as the "honeymoon period", a time when many voters are still adjusting to the new administration. Approval generally wanes over time as presidents grapple with legislative gridlock and suffer from inevitable controversies, thereby alienating some voters and slowly changing the public's perception.

But Trump "had little or no honeymoon period to speak of," Gallup reported. He began his presidency with a record-low 45% approval rating, which gradually decreased over the ensuing months.

Despite the low approval numbers, Trump and his supporters see the president's first year much differently.

"Unprecedented success for our Country, in so many ways, since the Election," Trump said in a tweet on the one-year anniversary of his inauguration. "Record Stock Market, Strong on Military, Crime, Borders, & ISIS, Judicial Strength & Numbers, Lowest Unemployment for Women & ALL, Massive Tax Cuts, end of Individual Mandate - and so much more. Big 2018!"

On Friday, Trump took his message of success to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. In front of a skeptical crowd of global elites, Trump touted strong US economic growth, highlighted by 2.4 million new jobs and $7 trillion in new wealth in the stock market.

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