Solid majority of Americans disapprove of Trump’s job performance
A solid majority of Americans continue to disapprove of President Trump's job performance, according to a host of recent opinion surveys.
A NPR/PBS/Marist poll released Wednesday found 38 percent of registered voters approve of the president's job performance, while 53 percent disapprove. (That survey also had some interesting findings on the public view of Republican efforts to overturn Obamacare.)
In an Economist/YouGov survey also released on Wednesday, 42 percent of registered voters said they approve of the job Mr. Trump is doing as president, while 53 percent said they disapprove.
Thirty-nine percent of Americans in a Gallup poll released Tuesday gave the president's job performance a thumbs-up, while 57 percent gave it a thumbs-down.
And a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday put Mr. Trump's approval rating at 34 percent among Americans nationwide, and his disapproval at 58 percent.
The latest CBS News poll, released last week, found that 36 percent of Americans approve of the job the president is doing, while 57 percent disapprove.
These recent polls also reveal a deep pessimism about the trajectory of the country – a trend that may help explain the president's lackluster approval ratings, and one that seems to have gotten worse over the last few months.
Only 32 percent of respondents in the Economist survey said the country is headed in the right direction, while 57 percent said it's on the wrong track. In the PBS survey, 31 percent said we're on the right track, 63 percent disagreed. In the Reuters poll, 24 percent said we're headed in the right direction, while 61 percent said we're on the wrong track. And the latest CBS News numbers show 31 percent of Americans believe we're on the right track, while 64 percent say we're headed in the wrong direction.
Admittedly, the right track/wrong direction numbers have never been particularly optimistic, in recent years. According to the RealClearPolitics average of polls, only once during the last eight years did the number of Americans who believe the country is headed in the right direction match the number of Americans who believe the country is off track: For a brief shining moment in June 2009, roughly 46 percent of Americans fell into each camp.
Since then, pessimism has reigned. The stretch of Mr. Trump's presidency in which Americans were feeling best about the direction of the country came towards the end of March – in the RealClearPolitics average, on March 21, nearly 39 percent of voters said the country is on the right track, while over 51 percent said it's headed in the wrong direction.
In the three months since, that gap has widened considerably. In the same average today, only about 33 percent of Americans say we're on the right track, while over 60 percent say we're headed in the wrong direction.
The NPR/PBS/Marist poll surveyed 995 registered voters between June 21 and June 25, and it has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percent. The Economist/YouGov poll surveyed 1,295 registered voters between June 25 and June 27, and it has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percent. The Gallup poll surveyed 1,500 adults nationwide between June 24 and June 26, and it has a margin of error of plus or minus three percent. The Reuters/Ipsos poll surveyed 1,587 adults nationwide as part of a five-day rolling average, and it has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percent. And the CBS News poll surveyed 1,117 Americans between June 15 and June 18, and it has a margin of error of plus or minus four percent.
