The approval ratings for President Donald Trump have fallen to all-time lows as he nears the first anniversary of his election victory over Hillary Clinton.
A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that 59% of respondents are unhappy with Trump’s handling of the presidency, which is the worst of any president since modern polling began. Trump has only been in office for nine months. Fifty percent say they strongly disapprove. Just 37% of respondents say they are satisfied with Trump’s performance in office.
The Washington Post claims that Trump is the first president since Harry Truman to have a net-negative approval rating this early in his presidency. The next worst, with a net positive of 11 points, was former President Bill Clinton.
While a third of respondents believe Trump possesses these qualities, a record number (65%) do not believe he is “honest and trustworthy,” up from 58% in April 2017. Trump “has the kind of personality and temperament it takes to serve effectively as president,” according to two-thirds of respondents.
Since Trump took office in January, expectations for his presidency have also drastically decreased. Just 44% of respondents believe he is doing that well now, compared to 61% who predicted he would do an excellent or good job on the economy prior to his inauguration. Just 43% of respondents say he is currently dealing with terrorism effectively, compared to 56% who thought he would. Expectations have decreased by 18% and 12%, respectively, regarding his ability to improve the health care system and handle racial relations.
Trump has done “little or nothing” in his first nine months in office, according to the majority of those surveyed. Fewer than 40% of those surveyed think he has fulfilled the majority of his key campaign pledges. Under Trump, 53% of respondents believe that America’s position as a global leader has weakened, 26% believe that it has strengthened, and 20% believe that it has stayed the same.
Only roughly one-third (32%) of respondents say they trust Trump to handle the issue responsibly as he embarks on his five-nation Asian tour, where much of the conversation is expected to focus on thwarting North Korea’s nuclear threat; 51% have no faith in him at all on the matter, and another 16% say they trust him “just a little.”
The majority (58%) of respondents are in favor of special counsel Robert Mueller’s handling of the investigation into claims of collusion between Trump’s team members and the Russian government, while 28% are against it. In the meantime, 68% of respondents support the accusations made against Paul Manafort, the former chairman of the Trump campaign.
37% of respondents say the President is cooperating with the Mueller investigation, while 51% disagree. Trump has stated that he has no plans to dismiss Mueller.
53% of respondents believe that the charges against Manafort, former campaign staffer Rick Gates, and former campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos reflect more widespread misconduct in the Trump campaign; 28% disagree, and 19% are unsure. Papadopoulos entered a guilty plea to making a false statement to the FBI, while Manafort and Gates entered not guilty pleas to their charges.
Trump “committed a crime in connection with possible Russian attempts to influence the election,” according to slightly less than half of respondents (49%) but only 19% of them believe there is “solid evidence” of such a crime; 30% say their belief is based only on suspicion. The President is unlikely to have committed a crime, according to 44% of respondents.
