Donald Trump is approaching the 100th day of his presidency. According to recent polls, only one-third of Pennsylvania residents approve of his handling of the pandemic. Increasingly, Americans are realizing that Trump’s grand plan to remake the government isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. As such, a large majority approve of his overall management of the presidency.
As recent surveys make clear, the Trump approval rating pendulum swings anywhere from 39% to 45%. Such low approval hasn’t been seen for any newly-elected president this far into their term in more than seventy years. Only a belly-flopping 24% of independents approve of the job Trump’s doing. This disapproval signals a growing bipartisan shift against new tolling.
Over half—fifty-two percent—of all U.S. adults still have confidence in Trump’s ability to steer the U.S. economy in the right direction. This confidence has eroded—by 13 points since December. The decline is part of a larger trend in which voters are losing faith in Trump’s ability to tackle issues that matter most. Approval ratings for Trump’s handling of immigration have tanked. They dropped from 60% in December to a paltry 45%. The irony here is particularly palpable, given that immigration was the core issue on which he rode to the White House.
The partisan divide is the other way that complicates Trump’s approval landscape. While three out of four Republicans still back him, nearly nine out of 10 Democrats say they disapprove. This sharp contrast underlines the polarized nature of American politics today, as voters align their views closely with their party affiliations.
Even with these pressures on him, Trump still has a deep bedrock of support among his fans. Republican voters are still deeply committed. This loyalty indicates that although his net approval on the whole may be sinking, he still has his party’s solid backing. The drop in confidence among independents and the overall public is deeply troubling. More critically, it raises doubts about the sustainability of his administration’s golden-child policies and initiatives.