Trump ratings plummet: 53% call the President either terrible or poor, 87% are unhappy with how US is being run
An embattled Donald Trump heard more bad news coming out of a survey conducted by a new Pew Research Poll this week that says an overwhelming number of Americans are dissatisfied with how the country is being run and consider the incumbent far from an able one. The Trump administration has been facing successive challenges over the past many years, the latest being the accusations that it did little against Russia despite it paying Taliban militants in Afghanistan to kill US troops deployed there. The undying Covid-19 pandemic and anti-racism protests are other major challenges that it has been facing.
The Pew poll was conducted between June 16 and 22 as the coronavirus cases surged in several states in the US that started reopening. The economy is still to see a recovery while social tension has continued in the wake of the killings of George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks that has fueled calls to defund and disband police departments in many cities in the country.
According to the poll, only 12% of the respondents were satisfied with how the country is being run in June, compared to 31% in April. An overwhelming 87% were dissatisfied. And while only 46% felt hopeful about the state of the nation, 53% did not.
The Pew poll was one of the three polls that came out this week that showed the people of America are deeply resentful about the state of the country. The poll also sounded an alarm for President Trump saying if the election was held today, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden would win with 54% support. Only 44% were in favor of backing the Republican.
As per the RealClearPolitics polling average, the former vice president is leading Trump by almost 10 points in the general election scheduled to be held on November 3.
The findings are certainly a blow for the president as he often brags about his high approval rating in the Republican Party but failed to get a high approval for his job performance in the White House in the Pew survey. Out of 53% who have a negative take on Trump, 42% called him a “terrible” president and 11% called him as “poor”. Thirty-seven percent called him a good or great commander-in-chief.
It is not that Biden found a good response as a good or great president with only 28% saying so. But at the same time, only 28% also said he would be terrible with 15% feeling he would do a poor job in office.
Trump did not respond to the latest polls. However, he has been known for not believing surveys that give him poor marks. Last month, when a Wall Street Journal poll showed him trailing Biden by eight points, the president called the numbers “very unfair” and blamed the impeachment process.
“If I wasn’t constantly harassed for three years by fake and illegal investigations, Russia, Russia, Russia, and the Impeachment Hoax, I’d be up by 25 points on Sleepy Joe and the Do Nothing Democrats. Very unfair, but it is what it is!!!” an irked Trump tweeted on June 7.
The silver lining for Trump in the poll came in the domain of the economy. While 51% showed confidence in his capacity to handle the economy, 48% favored Biden more. But his handling of the coronavirus impact on public health (41%) and race relations (35%) received much less approval. Biden got approval rates of 52% and 48%, respectively.