Donald Trump quotes incorrect figures in tweet boasting of high approval rating

The president's overall approval rating has never reached above 50 per cent

US President Donald Trump appears to have cited his disapproval rating in a tweet about attempting to boast about his approval rating among Americans (AFP/Getty)

Donald Trump misquoted figures in a tweet attempting to boast about his approval rating.

“Over 90 per cent approval rating for your all time favouite (I hope) President within the Republican Party and 52 per cent overall,” Mr Trump tweeted.

The White House has not confirmed to which poll Mr Trump was referring in his tweet. But whether it was a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll or a Rasmussen poll, which has consistently reported higher approval numbers for the president than other polls, the president was wrong.

In the NBC/WSJ poll, taken between 22-25 August, the president’s approval rating among Republicans is 90 per cent, as Mr Trump indicated in the tweet.

That number is coupled with a 10 per cent overall approval rating among Democrats.

However, his overall approval rating in that poll is just 44 per cent.

In his 18 months in office, his approval rating has never averaged more than 50 per cent.

Mr Trump appears to have referred to his disapproval rating, which is 52 per cent in that particular poll.

If he was referring to the Rasmussen poll for the same time period, the story is the same - his approval rating stands at 46 per cent and his disapproval rating increases from 52 to 54 per cent.

Mr Trump's approval rating appeared to be consistent despite the barrage of news concerning his former associates Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen. 

Former campaign manager Mr Manafort was found guilty of eight counts of tax evasion and bank fraud in the first trial resulting from the FBI and special prosecutor Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged collusion between the president's 2016 campaign team and Russian officials. 

The same day, Mr Trump's former personal lawyer Mr Cohen pleaded guilty to a separate eight counts of similar charges and appeared to imply he committed the crimes at the direction of the president. 

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Mr Trump reached an all-time high approval rating of 45 per cent in the weekly Gallup poll on 18 June 2018. Still, half of Americans surveyed were not happy with the job he was doing at that point - he had a disapproval rating of 50 per cent. 

His lowest approval rating came in December 2017, when only 35 of Americans overall approved of the job the president was doing.