Donald Trump has been president for less than three weeks – and already, 40 percent of Americans say they want him impeached.
Trouble is, about the same percentage say they support Trump one hundred percent – so our current polarization probably isn’t going away anytime soon.
That’s the upshot of the latest national survey from Public Policy Polling. Trump’s disapproval rating is 49 percent – not bad compared to other politicians, but staggeringly high for a new President – and as PPP director Tom Jensen puts it, “Voters think basically everything he’s doing is wrong.” On virtually every major issue, Trump’s opponents outnumber his supporters: 49 percent oppose his controversial executive order on refugees (47 percent support it); 55 percent disagree with his assertion that “millions of people voted illegally” in the 2016 election (26 percent agree); 54 percent are opposed to building a wall on the Mexican border if Americans have to pay for it up front (40 percent are still in favor); and 50 percent are opposed to a tax on Mexican imports (37 percent support it).
Tom Jensen spoke with WCHL’s Aaron Keck.
But the survey also shows about 40 percent of Americans are willing to support Trump in (almost) every fight. Thirty-nine percent support barring legal U.S. visa holders from entering the U.S. if they come from one of the seven ‘banned’ countries. Forty-three percent support an indefinite suspension of Syrian refugee admissions. Forty-one percent oppose the Affordable Care Act (though only 33 percent support outright repeal). And forty percent support a Mexican border wall enough that they’re willing to pay for it.
All told, only 47 percent of Americans say they approve of the job Trump is doing – and that number may actually be artificially high. Most Presidents enjoy a “honeymoon” period in their first few weeks or months on the job, when otherwise skeptical voters “give them a chance” – but that “chance” tends to run out after a few months. If the pattern holds with Trump, his approval rating will begin to slide in the spring. But a solid 40 percent of Americans seem to support him wholeheartedly – so even if his approval rating does slide, it won’t slide much. (At least not right away.)
One thing is certain, though: only three weeks into Trump’s presidency, a sizable majority of Americans yearn for the days of Obama. Given the choice, 52 percent of Americans would prefer Barack Obama were still president – compared with only 43 percent who say they’re happy with the change.
Comments on Chapelboro are moderated according to our Community Guidelines