New Trump Approval Poll Results Show Dramatic Plunge

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After an initial slight bump in President Donald Trump’s apparent public approval amidst the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, his approval ratings have begun sinking again as Americans, no doubt, have had the chance to really observe the president’s response to the pandemic, failures and all. A new ABC News/Ipsos poll, which dropped on Friday, had just 47 percent of Americans approving of Trump’s response to the pandemic, while a full 52 percent said that they actively disapproved. In that same poll from just a couple of weeks ago, a full 55 percent of respondents said that they approved of Trump’s Coronavirus response.

The trend continues elsewhere. From a high back on February 27 when Rasmussen Reports measured that 52 percent of the public approved of Trump’s overall performance in office, the president’s approval has sunk to the level of just 44 percent of the population, an eight percent drop. Currently, 53 percent of respondents say that they actively disapprove of the president’s overall job performance, meaning that total disapproval leads by a full nine percent.

It’s even worse when measuring just those who “strongly” approve and disapprove of the president. In their most recent numbers, just 32 percent of Rasmussen respondents said that they “strongly” approved of the president, while a full 44 percent said that they strongly disapproved. How exactly does Trump expect to get re-elected with those numbers in place? Rasmussen is even a right-leaning pollster!

Overall, RealClearPolitics reports that an average of 49.8 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the Coronavirus outbreak, while 47.7 percent say that they disapprove, on average — although the dismal ABC News poll is the most recent one that they have catalogued, so a downward trend could be beginning. Overall, RealClearPolitics also reports that an average of 46.9 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s overall job performance, while 50.6 percent of Americans actively disapprove, on average.

Disapproval from a majority obviously isn’t great for a candidate heading into an election — in polling measuring their likely head-to-head match-up in the November general election, former Vice President Joe Biden leads Trump by an average of 5.9 percent, again according to RealClearPolitics. The last time that Trump led Biden was a single poll in mid-February.

Trump has frequently explicitly concerned himself with protecting his public image amidst the Coronavirus pandemic. The other day, he went on a lengthy public rant touting how good the television ratings are for his Coronavirus task force’s daily news briefings, which Americans are tuning into because of the deadly pandemic.

Trump tweeted:

‘Because the “Ratings” of my News Conferences etc. are so high, “Bachelor finale, Monday Night Football type numbers” according to the @nytimes , the Lamestream Media is going CRAZY. “Trump is reaching too many people, we must stop him.” said one lunatic.See you at 5:00 P.M.!’

He has also frequently tweeted about polls showing high approval of his Coronavirus response.

On March 5, he used the Coronavirus situation as an occasion to attack opponents, tweeting:

‘Gallup just gave us the highest rating ever for the way we are handling the CoronaVirus situation. The April 2009-10 Swine Flu, where nearly 13,000 people died in the U.S., was poorly handled. Ask MSDNC & lightweight Washington failure @RonaldKlain , who the President was then?’

For the record, the U.S. death toll from the Coronavirus may soon pass the swine flu death toll. It’s already at almost 7,000.