President Donald Trump has struggled big time through the Coronavirus pandemic, and Americans are seeming to notice. This month, Gallup recorded a drop in his approval rating of a full six percent. In mid-March, 49 percent of respondents said that they approved of the job Trump was doing in office, but now, just 43 percent of respondents say that they approve. In the weeks since mid-March, some of the most dismal effects of the Trump administration’s repeatedly failing Coronavirus response have set in. The national death toll has passed 30,000, and some 22 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits in the last several weeks, indicating staggering, even if temporary, job losses amidst national social distancing efforts.
The drop from mid-March’s high of 49 percent to Trump’s new approval rating of just 43 percent is the largest drop-off that Gallup has recorded at any point during Trump’s presidency. It’s close to his overall tenure average of just 40 percent. In 2020, Trump’s overall average approval rating has hit 46 percent, but that clearly appears to be sinking back down as the reality of the president’s failures set in.
Trump spent weeks and months flatly dismissing the threat of the Coronavirus. At a late February rally, he called concern about the virus a “hoax,” and not until weeks after that did he even institute national social distancing guidelines. By that point, a small selection of concerned governors had already issued those guidelines for their own residents, but a patchwork selection of stay-at-home orders would, of course, be significantly less effective than stay-at-home orders that don’t leave large portions of the population free to intermingle and spread the virus.
‘The COVID-19 pandemic has strained the U.S. and its institutions in unprecedented ways, creating great challenges for leaders. It’s unsurprising that fewer Americans are satisfied with the way things are going than was the case a month ago. Americans’ ratings of Trump’s performance improved in mid-March, when the novel coronavirus threat demanded federal efforts to contain the spread… But one month is a long time for Americans in quarantine, and the dip in the president’s ratings may be equally reflective of their assessment of his performance and an overall souring mood as the unemployment rate and death toll both continue to climb.’
It’s worth noting — in the latest Gallup polling, approval ratings for Congress as a whole have actually gone up. A full 30 percent of respondents said that they approved of the job Congress as a whole is doing, which bodes well for Democrats considering they lead one of the chambers. An approval rating of 30 percent for Congress has not been recorded by Gallup at any point in the last decade, following a high point of the low 30s in the early period of Barack Obama’s time in office.
Single-day Coronavirus death tolls have hit new highs in the U.S. this week, with six states at more than 1,000 total deaths each. Three out of those half a dozen states have passed more than 2,000 deaths each. Trump’s latest priorities have focused on getting the economy rolling again after Coronavirus-induced social distancing measures.
