He’s cratering:
Trump’s approval among independents lands at 26% in the survey, a sharp drop from 40% in mid-June, the last time the question was asked. Trump’s disapproval among independents has risen to 73%, up from 59% in the June poll.
Within his own party, Republicans are less inclined to back him in the newest poll, with only 78% approving of the president’s handling of the coronavirus, compared to 90% in mid-June. His disapproval of 22% in the new poll is a more than two-fold increase from last month.
In a variety of demographic groups, there are clear and consistent shifts in support away from the president.
Men (66%) and women (67%), in near equal measure, disapprove of the president’s coronavirus response, which represents a double-digit increase among men since the June poll, when 54% disapproved.
Even white Americans without a college degree, considered to be a core constituency of Trump’s base, are split in their approval of the president’s handling, with 50% disapproving and 49% approving, compared to 42% disapproving and 57% approving in that last poll.
The newest numbers come as Trump continues to downplay the threat posed by the virus, even as confirmed cases climb.
Earlier this week, Trump falsely claimed that “99 percent of [coronavirus cases] are totally harmless,” while casting the movement to remove statues of controversial figures in the country’s history as the most pressing threat to the nation.
Trump’s focus on what he called an “angry mob” looking to “tear down our statues” and “erase our history,” comes as the country continues to reel from the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, who died on Memorial Day after he was pinned down by a white Minnesota police officer, and the nationwide unrest over racial injustice that followed.
The new poll comes amid debates over renaming and removing statues that bear the names of Confederate figures, and after Mississippi lawmakers voted to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag.
Americans are more than eight times as likely to have a negative reaction to the Confederate flag than a positive one, the new poll finds, marking a shift from just five years ago.
Trump is seeing his approval broadly underwater for his handling of race relations, even across all racial groups. More than half (57%) of white Americans, and overwhelming majorities of black Americans (92%) and Hispanics (83%) disapprove of the president’s handling of this issue.
Although his approval among Republicans falls at 78% on race relations, this is far less than the strong majority of Democrats (91%) who disapprove of the president on this issue. Independents (74% disapprove) are also deeply skeptical of the president’s handling of race relations.
The faltering numbers for Trump are also accompanied by concerns over the country’s path to reopening.
A majority of Americans (59%) believe the push to reopen the economy is moving too quickly, similar to a June 26 ABC News/Ipsos poll when it was 56%.
Currently, 15% think the country is moving too slowly, and 26% think the country is moving at the right pace.
Instead of rising to the occasion and proving to the nation that he is worthy of his absurd claim to greatness, he did this:
Not that there’s anything new about that…
After threatening a shutdown for months over border wall funding and vowing last week that he would “take the mantle” of responsibility, Trump tried to shift the blame Friday, just hours before a government funding bill expired at midnight.
The devastation of 133,000 deaths and many more being seriously ill may have made this childish refusal to ever take responsibility for anything a little bit more salient. Add to that his grotesque racism and this is what he gets.