100 days of Trump. Worst ratings on record and plenty of scandals

President Donald Trump is approaching his 100th day in the White House, but the Republican’s rating approval hit historic lows and the many scandals surrounding his staff and family have contributed significantly to the his unpopularity.

An ABC News/Washington Post survey released days before the 100 day mark shows Trump has the lowest approval rate than any president since 1945 of of only 42%. Past presidents’ ratings averaged 69 percent approval and 19 percent disapproval by their 100th day in office, the poll shows.

More than half of the Americans (56%) say “he’s accomplished little or nothing in his first 100 days,” and six out of 10 people “doubt his honesty and trustworthiness, see him as out of touch, and don’t think he understands the problems of people like them.” Nevertheless, the majority of his base still support him, with 96 percent of those who supported Trump in November still stand by their vote today.

Looking at the survey, one can easily notice which are some of Trump’s most unpopular decisions. Only 34 per cent approve of his daughter, Ivanka Trump, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, having important roles within the administration.

Democrats have raised concerns about Trump’s Russia connections, his business conflicts, his unreleased taxes or his government-funded trips to Mar-a-Lago.

Family comes first for Donald Trump

The substantial roles played Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump at have been heavily criticized by the Democratic camp and are considered d inappropriate by a majority of voters.

A Quinnipiac University poll, found that 53% of registered voters believe that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s White House roles are inappropriate.

Ivanka works as a special advisor (an unpaid position) and her husband works as a senior adviser for President Trump.

Liberal critics of the Trump administration cite conflict-of-interest, as they believe that this is almost unprecedented move to have one’s children on a presidential staff, even if they are unpaid.

The potential for conflicts of interest between President Donald Trump and his family’s business ventures emerged for the first time when it was revealed that Ivanka and Kushner were present at an official meeting with the Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe, without the necessary security clearance.

In another breach of protocol, senior White House officials confirmed reports of Kushner’s trip before he had landed in Iraq to assess the war on the Islamic State from the front-lines.

The 36-year-old also acted as a campaign manager during much of the 2016 presidential race, and has consolidated even more power since entering the White House.

The president has specifically tasked Kushner, an Orthodox Jew, with brokering peace in the region. Kushner, also has a broad portfolio within the West Wing, where he has an influential role over a range of foreign and domestic policy issues.

He is heading up the Office of American Innovation, a new White House office aimed at reforming the federal government through private-sector solutions. His international portfolio includes China, Mexico, Canada and the Middle East, as well as solving the opioids crisis in the United States.

Kushner’s increasing role in the Trump administration has lead to removal of Trump’s chief strategist and former Breitbart publisher Steve Bannon from the National Security Council.

Trump Cabinet: At least 12 White House officials lost their jobs

The first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency have seen an unusual high number of professional casualties with at least 12 officials losing their jobs due to ethics violations or Russia ties.

Firstly, Trump shocked Washington by surrounding himself with a staff with no experience in government ranging from his son-in-law, his daughter, the former head of a right-wing website and a Goldman Sachs executive. Soon after the took over th Oval Office, several of his staff members verged on the edge of scandal.

The scandal over Russia’s meddling in the U.S. Election has taken the spotlight. Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort, Trump’s national security adviser and campaign manager, are both under FBI investigation for their ties to Russia.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who chaired the Trump campaign’s national security committee, was forced to recuse himself from his department’s Russia investigation after misleading Congress about his own contacts with Russia.

FBI Director James Comey said on March 20 that his agency is “investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government, and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.” The Senate and House intelligence committees are also both investigating.

The CEO of Carl’s Jr. Andy Puzder was nominated by Trump as Labour State Secretary. However, Puzder faced a string of setbacks in his confirmation process, including the fact that he had hired an undocumented housekeeper. No to mention the fact that he was accused by his ex-wife of abusing and threatening her on an episode of the Oprah Winfrey show.

Separately, Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway broke ethics rules by encouraging people to purchase Ivanka Trump merchandise after Nordstrom announced it would drop her line of clothing.

The Office of Government Ethics ruled that Conway had broken rules on endorsements and recommended that she be fired, but the White House rejected the recommendation.

Conflicts of interest

During the campaign Donald Trump pledged that as president, he would separate himself from his business empire and do something to provide the public with transparency on his taxes. Since winning the presidency, he’s back tracked his promise regarding the tax release.

The president said that he would step away from the Trump Organisation, as would his daughter Ivanka, while his sons Donald and Eric ran the business. But while this removes him from day-to-day decision making, ProPublica reported that Trump could draw money from the trust at any time without external disclosure.

Trump is in violation of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, because foreign leaders can funnel money to the president by staying in his hotels,

The unusual manner in which Trump mixes politics and business can also be observed in the case of his daughter, Ivanka. She was granted five trademarks by the Chinese government on the very same day she had dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Similarly, Ivanka was closing business deals in Japan while simultaneously joining her father in meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Historic expenses on security and private getaways

Along with the lowest approval rate since 1945, President Donald Trump has racked up an historic amount of travel expenses in his first 100 days in office, surpassing any other president before him. Since taking office, Trump has spent half of his presidential weekends at his Florida resort in Mar-a-Lago, also referred to as ” the winter White House”, according to the The New York Times, which amounts.

Trump has spent seven of his 14 weekends as president flying to Mar-a-Lago, his exclusive resort in Palm Beach, on Air Force One.  Trump’s frequent trips to his palatial Florida resort have so far cost taxpayers more than $21 million, according to a report by CNN. Florida trips require a nearly 1,000 mile flight aboard Air Force One south from Washington, with a single flight hour on Air Force costing tax payers $180,000.

So far, the president has incurred roughly $25 million in travel expenses, according to costs estimated by the American Progress Action Fund.

Trump and his family have proven to be an expensive first family to protect. Not only does Trump travel frequently, but New York City officials have said it costs between $127,000 to $146,000 a day to protect first lady Melania Trump when she is in New York and the president is not there.

Even before he took office, security for Donald Trump’s Manhattan home had cost the city of New York $25.7 million, according to the NYPD. The cost during the roughly two-month period when Trump was president-elect amounted to less than the $35 million the mayor’s office expected to spend. The City Council anticipated an even larger outlay of $70 million, according to Bloomberg.

Dozens of agents from field offices across the country, including New York, have been temporarily pulled off their normal criminal investigation duties to work two-week rotations protecting members of the large Trump family, stated Secret Service officials.

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said earlier this month that the Department of Homeland Security will ask for additional funding to protect Trump.

“They need a lot more agents, not just because of the Trump era, although that is additional because he has a lot of children and grandchildren,” Kelly told senators on the Homeland Security Committee. “We need more agents and we need more uniformed personnel.”