Donald Trump has been running on his good economy. To increase his popularity, he has been tweeting daughter Ivanka Trump’s low unemployment numbers. Yet, Americans know that the economy is not working for anyone making less than $100,000. They know a dark economic menace is lurking nearby.
In the new ABC News/Washington Post poll, a full 60 percent of Americans believed a recession was on the horizon. The country has had a 10-year-stretch of good economic news, which is rare, that originated in the President Barack Obama administration. Normally, recessions come like waves in regular intervals.
The bad news caused the president’s approval rating to drop like a rock — six full points.
In July, POTUS reached his highest approval rating, 44 percent. After the recent drop, his approval rating was only 38 percent. A full 56 percent disapproved of him. Thus far, he has held the lowest approval rating of any president in recent memory. Trump broke all presidential records by being the first president to never achieve majority approval.
The poll hit the president right where it hurt the most, in his handling of the economy. It dropped five percentage points from a 51 percent approval rating last summer to its current 46 percent.
Only 35 percent approved of his trade war against China, and 60 percent of the interviewees expressed worry over his tariffs increasing the cost of items they consume. The US economy approval rating was 65 percent positive a year ago. In this poll, it reached 56 percent positive.
The most dismal picture was the 60 percent of Americans who consider a recession very or somewhat likely next year. In November 2007 right before the Great Recession, 69 percent of Americans said the same thing.
Rather than improving the economy, the poll indicated that Americans think Trump’s handling of the economy increased the odds of a recession next year, three to one, 43 to 16 percent.
Among those who anticipated a recession as likely, his approval rating reached just 20 percent. He only reached 19 percent among those who have been worried about his trade war with China. Conversely, his approval rating among those less concerned about the recession was 50 percent.
The public remained divided between political parties. A full 90 percent of self-described Republicans viewed the economy positively. The percentage dropped to 52 percent for independents and 33 percent for Democrats. One out of three Republicans view a recession as very or somewhat likely in the coming year. Independents saw the odds of a recession 60 percent and 83 percent for Democrats.
Trump’s overall approving rating among Republicans was 82 percent, among Democrats only eight percent, and among independents 36 percent.
This poll was conducted via landlines and cell phones between September 2 and 5, 2019. It was conducted in English and Spanish among a random sample of 1,003 adults. The margin of error was 3.5 +/- percentage points. The political division was 28 percent Democrats, 24 percent Republicans, and 37 percent, independents.
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