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US President Donald Trump blasted a new poll that showed him with a record-low approval rating as "the most inaccurate poll around election time". Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

US President Donald Trump has insisted that his record-low approval rating in a new national poll after just six months in office is "not bad at this time". The Washington Post/ABC News poll released early Sunday (16 July) put Trump's six-month approval rating at 36% among Americans - the lowest rating of any US president in the past 70 years.

However, Trump slammed the poll in a tweet on Sunday that read: "The ABC/Washington Post Poll, even though almost 40% is not bad at this time, was just about the most inaccurate poll around election time!"

Trump's approval rating has dropped 6 points since the 100-day mark during his presidency. The last US president who had comparable numbers at or near six months was Gerald Ford at 39% back in February 1975. Meanwhile, Trump's predecessors Barack Obama and George W Bush both had 59% approval ratings at the six-month mark during their own presidencies.

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The poll found also that 48% believe the US' place as a global leader has weakened under Trump. While 38% say the president is making significant progress towards his goals; 55% disagreed.

The new survey comes amid increased scrutiny into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Last week, it emerged that Donald Trump Jr had allegedly met a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer in June 2016 after he was promised compromising information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and former campaign manager Paul Manafort were also allegedly in attendance at the meeting.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans polled (63%) said the meeting was inappropriate. As much as 60% said Russia tried to influence the election. The poll also found that 50% preferred Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act over the Republican plan to replace it.

Conducted between 10 and 13 July, the poll has a margin of error of 3.5%.

Twitter immediately criticised Trump's assertion that his approval rating according to the new poll, which he deemed inaccurate, is "not bad at this time".

"Coming from the petty little @POTUS who put up a fake @Time magazine cover in his golf resorts, what is "accurate" IS NOT his strong suit," one Twitter user wrote.

Another tweeted: "Technically, you could call that 'winning'. Look Donnie, you've achieved something no other Pres has achieved for 70 years! Woohoo!"

"Trump thinks polls are like golf scores. The lower the better", one person tweeted.

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