Trump Approval Rating Tanks: Majority Says He’s ‘Too Friendly With Russia’
Trump’s approval rating took a big tank last week, even before former FBI Director James Comey testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. That event is too recent for pollsters to have an accurate temperature on how America feels after that testimony. But a new Quinnipiac University poll released the day prior to James Comey’s hearing on Thursday reveals that the majority of voters polled believe Trump is too friendly with Russia.
It’s impacting Trump’s approval rating negatively. Voters are also starting to weigh in on what is illegal and what isn’t, who is ethical and who isn’t, and Trump’s apparent friendliness with the nation state of Russia. An ABC News/Washington Post poll taken one day before the James Comey hearing also took the temperature on Donald Trump’s intentions with James Comey’s firing.
The news wasn’t good for Donald Trump. In that poll, 61 percent of Americans polled believe that Donald Trump fired James Comey for his own personal reasons, and not for the good of the country.
Only 27 percent of those respondents feel that James Comey was fired for ethical reasons that benefited the country. Fifty-six percent of those Americans polled believe the president is actively trying to interfere with the Russian investigations currently before Congress and the FBI.
A Quinnipiac University poll out the day before the James Comey hearing echoed those sentiments of Americans who are concerned about Trump’s apparent friendliness with Russia. Donald Trump’s approval rating sunk to the lowest in his presidency, with a 34 percent approval rating.
Thirty-one percent of those voters polled believe that Donald Trump has done something illegal with Russia, and 29 percent say he’s done something unethical. More voters say he has done nothing wrong at 32 percent, but the numbers show the country is evenly divided on this topic.
It’s not just Trump that voters are concerned about. Trump’s campaign advisors and current special advisors to the president are not perceived well by the American public. Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, is not viewed well.
Forty percent of voters polled with Quinnipiac say that Trump’s current advisers are doing something or have done something illegal when it comes to Russia. Twenty-five percent say his advisers have done something unethical but not illegal.
While the country is divided on that issue, the country is not divided on the issue of Donald Trump’s friendliness with Russia. A majority of Americans polled at 54 percent say the president is too friendly with Russia. Even more, Americans are “very concerned” about his relationship with Russia at 68 percent.
Forty-nine percent, including Republicans, feel that the topic of Russian interference in the elections is “very important” for Congress to handle responsibly. Forty-five of Americans polled feel that Russia is an adversary to the United States, and eight percent feel that Russia is an ally.
The country approves with an overwhelming majority of 73 percent on the appointment of special prosecutor Robert Mueller on the Trump Russia investigations.
The same number of overwhelming majority of Americans polled at 73 percent also say that an independent commission like the 9/11 Commission is necessary for the Russian interference investigation. That number has increased by five points since April 19.
Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University poll said the following on the results of this poll.
“There is zero good news for President Donald Trump in this survey, just a continual slide into a chasm of doubt about his policies and his very fitness to serve. If this were a prize fight, some in his corner might be thinking about throwing in the towel.”
Donald Trump’s honesty, level-headedness, and leadership skills were polled in this survey, as were America’s impressions of his policy on immigration and climate change. Also polled were America’s opinions of Trump’s lead advisers, with specific questions related to the advisers that Donald Trump has that he is related to by family.
On the question, “is your opinion of Trump favorable or unfavorable,” 35 percent say favorable, and 60 percent say unfavorable. Opinion ratings for Trump’s son-in-law are even lower.
Jared Kushner has a favorability rating of only 14 percent. Voters do like his wife Ivanka Trump a little bit more, but not much more than they like her dad.
On the matter of Jared Kushner, voters were asked whether they felt it was appropriate that Trump’s son-in-law was in the White House, and played a significant role. Only 28 percent of those polled say that is appropriate, with 63 percent saying it is not appropriate. That 28 percent is down four points from April 19.
Thirty percent of Americans polled believe that Jared Kushner did something illegal relative to the Russia scandal. Twenty-eight percent say that he did something unethical but not illegal, and 17 percent were not sure or did not know enough.
Trump’s campaign advisors having something to do with Russian interference is seen by 40 percent of the voters polled as illegal, and 25 percent saying their actions we know of so far are unethical but not illegal.
Ivanka Trump’s favorability rating is 35 percent, down one point from April 19.
When it comes to honesty, 36 percent of voters polled say they find Donald Trump honest, while 59 percent of voters polled say they find him dishonest. Thirty-nine percent say he has good leadership skills, 58 percent say he does not. That favorability on leadership skills is down one point from April 19.
Forty percent of voters polled say they think Trump cares about Americans, down two points from April 19. Fifty-eight percent say they think he does not.
Only 29 percent of voters think Donald Trump is level-headed, that is down four points from April 19. Sixty-eight percent of voters think that he is not level-headed. Sixty-two percent of voters, however, do think he’s a strong person, but that is down one point from April 19.
On the marker for intelligence, 57 percent of Americans polled say they believe he is intelligent, while 40 percent do not. When it comes to shared values, 33 percent of Americans polled say Donald Trump shares their values while 64 percent say that he does. That 33 percent is down two points from April 19.
When American voters were asked whether they thought Donald Trump would be in office for four years, 54 percent of Americans believe he will be. Forty percent of voters do not believe he will be in office until the end of this term. When asked whether Donald Trump was abusing his power in office, the majority of voters polled said yes at 55 percent.
The poll was taken shortly after the incident in Montana when Republican candidate for Congress Greg Gianforte allegedly assaulted a reporter. The candidate ended up winning the seat in Congress. He also won assault charges after the fact reports The Guardian.
In this poll, Americans were asked if they felt it was ever appropriate for a politician to react to a member of the news media with violence. An overwhelming majority of Americans at 91 percent think it is not appropriate to react to journalists with violence.
When it comes to the economy, only 39 percent of Americans think Donald Trump is doing a good job there, with 53 percent disapproving. That is down three points from April 19. Voters are split almost evenly on how he is handling terrorism, with 46 percent Trump approval rating on terrorism.
Immigration, however, is a different story. Only 37 percent of Americans feel he is doing a good job on immigration, with 60 percent disapproving of his work on immigration, including the travel ban that he has relentlessly tweeted about.
How Donald Trump is handling the budget is getting very similar scores. Only 32 percent of Americans approve of how is handling the budget, 58 percent disapprove.
When Donald Trump pulled the United States from the Paris Climate Accord, that also had an impact on his approval rating. Thirty percent of Americans approve of Donald Trump’s handling of the environment, and 63 percent disapprove. Thirty-two percent approve of Donald Trump withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord, while 62 percent disapprove.
When asked whether Donald Trump was keeping his promises on “draining the swamp” and keeping corruption out of Washington, only 29 percent say he is keeping that promise, with 65 percent saying he is not.
The Quinnipiac University poll was taken between May 31 and June 6 on 1,361 voters across nine states. Republicans, Democrats, and Independents were polled for this survey using land lines and cell phone numbers for contact.
Donald Trump’s approval rating overall after that poll was 34 percent. Gallup has Trump’s approval rating today slightly higher at 37 percent, but Gallup also notes the Democrats are taking big leads.
Gallup has Trump’s approval rating today at 37 percent, which is still very low for this early in his term. But worse for Trump and the Republicans is that the Democrats have taken a seven-point-bump in the country overall. Gallup reports that 45 percent of Americans now identify as Democrat or leaning that way, while only 38 percent identify as Republicans or lean that way.
The number of identified Democrats has not been that high since April 2015, reports Gallup. It’s an “encouraging sign” for the Democrat party heading into Elections 2018. Democrats have until now only maintained a three-point lead over Republicans in the country.
Gallup cites this big bump as more a result of a decline of Republican affiliation than a bump in Democrat affiliation since the November 2016 election. The number of Democrats has not been this high since Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for the presidency.
The last time that Democrats had a seven-point bump over Republicans was 2009 when President Obama was working his first year in office, and the lead was nine points in Democrats favor.
All of the poll numbers out this week noting Donald Trump’s approval rating are bad news for the Trump Administration and the Republican party as a whole. Another poll out by ABC News/Washington Post before the James Comey hearing with the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence revealed that an overwhelming majority of Americans believe that James Comey was fired by Trump for personal reasons to Trump and not for reasons that benefited the country.
Although those respondents were evenly divided in how they felt about James Comey specifically, they were not divided in how they feel about the reasons he was fired. Six in 10 Americans believe he was fired by Trump for personal reasons to benefit Donald Trump. Fifty-five percent also have trouble believing James Comey.
Even so, more Americans believe James Comey than Donald Trump. In this poll, 72 percent say they have no trust in what Trump says on the Comey firing. But worse for Trump, a majority of Americans at 56 percent believe he is personally trying to interfere with the investigations of the Russian interference with the election.
The lack of trust in Trump is not exclusive to Democrats. Forty-eight percent of Republicans polled in this survey say they have distrust in their party pick for president.
None of this is good news for Donald Trump’s approval rating, or for the Republican party as a whole. Americans continue to look for leaders in either party that do not have corruption problems to step up to the plate in Congress and in the presidency. Trump approval ratings in polls taken after James Comey hearings will be very interesting in the coming weeks.
[Featured Image by Andrew Harnik/AP Images]
