Coronavirus pandemic: Only 48 percent Americans trust Trump to handle deadly challenge effectively, poll shows
President Donald Trump’s campaign team had expected that a well-functioning economy would do his re-election bid a big favor this year as it would work well to neutralize his opponents. But the outbreak of the coronavirus has put the plan in serious jeopardy. It is not only that coronavirus has posed a threat to the American economy but even the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic has left the people of the country less excited.
According to a new poll conducted between March 11-13, more Americans are not feeling confident with Trump’s way of dealing with the virus that has claimed over 60 lives in the US besides affecting over 3,000. Trump has been accused of underplaying the threat by not allowing aggressive testing to protect his re-election bid. The infrastructure has come under questioning and Trump’s efforts to blame his predecessor Barack Obama over the shortfalls has not convinced too many people.
The poll, conducted by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal, covered 900 registered voters - including 438 Democratic primary voters - about the ongoing outbreak. It said while 62 percent expressed confidence in the way the federal government has responded to the crisis, only 48 percent had trust in Trump’s response. While the Republican respondents still had high confidence in Trump (89 percent), the Democrats showed very little faith with only 15 percent.
People more confident in state and federal governments
Seventy-five percent of the respondents showed the most confidence in their respective state governments in handling the spread of COVID-19 and of them, 22 percent showed a ‘great deal of confidence’, 15 percent with ‘not very much’ and eight percent with none. Fifty-three percent, on the other hand, indicated a ‘fair’ amount of confidence.
Sixty-two percent said they have a great or fair amount of confidence in the federal government while 36 percent said ‘not much’ or no confidence in responses from the Congress and federal agencies.
The survey answers came after Trump addressed various press conferences over the week. Last week, Trump announced a travel ban on people from 26 European countries. Later, the UK and Ireland were also added to that list. Later in the week, Trump declared a national state of emergency to allow the federal government to access funding and aid the state and local governments.
On the question of Trump’s handling of COVID-19, 51 percent disapproved of Trump’s way while 49 percent approved, the poll showed.
While 41 percent of voters said their day-to-day lives will change in a major way because of the virus, 56 percent said their lives will change only in a small way or will not change at all.
However, 60 percent across the spectrum said the worst was yet to come about coronavirus. Thirty-one percent said they don’t feel the virus will be a major issue while six percent felt the worst has come and gone.