Brutal
by digby
The Pew Poll has some new numbers on Trump:
Overall, 39% say they approve of how Trump is handling his job as president, while 56% say they disapprove and 6% do not offer a view. Job ratings for Trump are more negative than for other recent presidents at similar points in their first terms.
By margins of more than two-to-one, larger shares of the public approved than disapproved of the early performance of Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. For example, in February 2001 – just a few months after Bush defeated Al Gore, despite narrowly losing the popular vote – 53% approved of how he was handling his job, compared with just 21% who said they disapproved.
And people have intense feelings about him:
An overwhelming share of the public (94%) offers a job rating for Trump; just 6% say they don’t know whether they approve or disapprove of him. By contrast, about two-in-ten or more declined to offer an early view of prior presidents dating back to Reagan in 1981. In addition to a wide majority of the public being able to rate Trump’s early job performance, most say they approve or disapprove of him strongly. Overall, 46% say they disapprove of Trump strongly, while another 9% say they disapprove but not strongly.
And by about three-to-one, more of those who approve of his performance say they feel this way strongly (29% of total public) than not strongly (8% of total public).
Intense disapproval of Trump is a majority view among several demographic groups. Most blacks (63%), Hispanics (56%), postgraduates (61%), college graduates (54%), women (54%) and young adults ages 18-29 (55%) say they strongly disapprove of Trump’s job performance.
Trump’s ratings are less negative among whites (49% approve, 46% disapprove), men (45% approve, 48% disapprove) and those ages 65 and older (48% approve, 47% disapprove). Nonetheless, strong approval is no higher than strong disapproval among all of these groups. Whites without a college degree are one major demographic group for which most approve of Trump’s job performance (56%) and strong approval outweighs strong disapproval (46% vs. 32%).
Most people disapprove of his handling of … everything:
He’s lucky to have inherited an improving economy. But his white working class fans seem to think that if he can destroy Obamacare, get rid of the Mexicans and put all the African Americans in jail, they’ll be rich. We’ll see how that works out.
They still think he keeps his promises and and “gets things done.” That’s not something people can know about this soon so it’s more about affect than reality. There’s a lot of activity but we don’t yet know about the results. God help us if he actually does keep his promises.
In case you were wondering, here’s how it breaks down by party:
This is interesting too although I’m not sure if people really care if Trump sells the presidency to the highest bidder or not. A lot of Americans probably think that’s just smart business (as long as he doesn’t use a private email server of course.)
It’s interesting that only 42% of Republicans think he has a great deal of respect for the country’s democratic institutions. The rest apparently don’t give a damn:
Most Americans say Trump does not have much respect for the country’s democratic institutions.
Overall, 59% say Trump has not too much (25%) or no respect at all (34%) for the country’s democratic institutions and traditions. A smaller share (40%) says he has either a great deal (18%) or a fair amount (22%) of respect for these institutions. Views on this question are little changed from October 2016, during the general election campaign.
As with virtually all assessments of Trump, there are wide party divides in views on this question. Among Republicans and Republican leaners, 77% say Trump has either a great deal (42%) or a fair amount (34%) of respect for the nation’s democratic institutions. By contrast, 85% of Democrats and Democratic leaners say Trump has little respect for democratic institutions and traditions in the U.S, including a majority (54%) of Democrats who say he has no respect at all for these institutions and traditions.
His peeps remain white, non-college educated voters. But that’s pretty much it:
This is, to say the least, an inauspicious beginning.
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