Despite entering his third year in office amidst a partial government shutdown, U.S. President Donald Trump's approval ratings remain at roughly 40 percent. While outlier polls have put President Trump's approval ratings at lower and higher percentages, it is always the aggregate number of all the recent polls that provides the most accurate information. While some polls put Trump at a 38 percent approval and 54 percent disapproval rating, others, usually with higher sample numbers, put the president as 44 percent and 56 percent respectively.

Regardless, his average approval rating as of Jan. 20 stands at 40 percent when all major polls are taken into consideration, which paints a different picture compared to what certain media outlets are attempting to draw. Polls of likely or registered voters specifically approve of the president by 41.4 percent and disapprove by 54.6 percent. Trump's approval ratings have regularly been fluctuating from the low to mid 40s, however he's also seen numbers that range in the high 30s ever since he took office.

In the 2016 election, President Trump defied all expectations from the very start of his presidential campaign, which was highly divisive. His election was considered to be unexpected by most and incomprehensible to many. Since then, he has shaken both American and world politics through his tweets.

What is intriguing is that the ongoing partial government shutdown has not affected the numbers by any substantial degree when previous months going back to the midterm elections and before are taken into consideration.

Both the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. government take hits to their respective approval ratings during midterms and shutdowns, be they partial or not. In fact Trump's own ratings during the midterms, at 47 percent were two points higher than Barack Obama's 2010, at 45 percent.

While Trump remains a comparatively unpopular president among the general population, he's been one of the most popular presidents among republicans to date ranking easily over 90 percent. One of the reasons that Trump may appear to have slipped recently has been because of the status of the U.S.-Mexico border, for which he has been promising to build a physical barrier for two-and-a-half years.

While he made an offer to Congressional Democrats on Saturday to get $5.7 billion for upgraded border security, additional immigration judges, and so forth, in exchange for a three-year extension for the stay of illegals under the protection of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the fact that his core supporters, or his political base, have not seen "The Wall" go up yet is also hurting his numbers.