Poll: Americans Trust Media Over Trump, Evenly Split On Impeachment Movement

A new Quinnipiac University poll finds Americans trust the news media more than President Donald Trump, who recently pronounced the fourth estate an “enemy of the people.”

The newly elected Republican president has made bitterly clashing with the media a staple of his administration over his first few weeks in office, going as far as to bar such esteemed outlets as the New York Times and CNN from a recent White House briefing.

Through it all, the Quinnipiac poll found 52 percent of Americans now insist they trust the news media over Trump to tell the truth about the most important issues of the day, compared to just 37 percent who sided with the president.

“The media, so demonized by the Trump Administration, is actually a good deal more popular than President Trump,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

Researchers found 86 percent of Democrats trust the news media more, along with 50 percent of independents. Trump has the support of 78 percent of Republicans and 38 percent of independents.

The split is almost just as pronounced among white college-educated and non-college-educated voters, with 37 percent of those with degrees rolling with Trump compared to just 37 percent of college grads.

Meanwhile, a Public Policy Polling survey recently found that Americans are now evenly split on the issue of if the president should be impeached just weeks into his administration.

Pollsters found 46 percent of voters are in favor of impeachment and 46 percent are dead-set opposed to it. Recent polls also found Trump’s post-inauguration approval rating is a record low compared to his recent predecessors

Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush posted averaged approval ratings of 67 percent at comparable times in their reigns. Ronald Reagan was the closest to Trump, at 51 percent.

Trump’s highest approval numbers come from among white men at 58 percent, while just 14 percent of black women approve of him.

A recent Marist poll also finds nearly six in 10 respondents (58 percent) insist they are embarrassed by the Trump administration, while 33 percent say his activity in office makes them proud.

As for some of his most public and controversial stances, 60 percent of Americans oppose his signature proposal of building a wall along the Mexican border to coincide with his hardline immigration stance, compared to just 37 percent who voice support for it.

Trump has also vowed to force the Mexican government to foot the bill for the construction of the wall, a notion that has been soundly rejected by Mexican leaders.

In nearly every poll, a majority of respondents say the country is not heading in the right direction. In a Monmouth poll, just over one in four or 27 percent of respondents support the way the country is headed, contrasted against 67 percent who see red flags about its overall direction.

More specifically, Trump’s controversial travel ban where he banned travelers from seven mostly Muslim states from being able to enter the U.S. was opposed by 65 percent of overall respondents with 48 percent of them viewing it as a “Muslim ban.”

As it is, Trump’s immigration policies and executive actions garnered just 45 percent of support from respondents, with 51 percent of them thinking illustrations like his fictional Bowling Green Massacre depiction are proof-positive evidence of his unflappable stance on the issue.

Trump’s travel ban action was ultimately struck down by a federal court judge and upheld by an appeals court as unconstitutional, but the administration has vowed to reinstate the order after making needed tweaks to it that will render it more difficult for critics to legally oppose.

[Featured Image by Olivier Douliery/Getty Image]