Shaky public opinion for Donald Trump

TT

Published 11.49

         

         

        US President Donald Trump at a cabinet meeting in the White House on Wednesday.

        1 / 2Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP/TT

The unpopular Iran war and rising gas prices are causing US President Donald Trump's public support to decline.

But support is stable among core voters, the Republican party chairman emphasizes.

39 percent. In the latest survey by the conservative television channel Fox News, the proportion of registered voters who think Donald Trump is doing a good job has fallen below the symbolic 40 percent mark.

Broken down by issues such as the economy, inflation and foreign policy, support is even lower. But when Joe Gruters, chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), was asked to comment on the poll on Wednesday, he ducked the question and focused on the party base.

“The grassroots love the president,” said Joe Gruters, according to The Hill.

“He is the leader of our party and when he makes a decision, when he supports candidates, they usually win.”

Supporting challengers

The move alludes to the fact that Trump-backed challengers have defeated sitting congressmen in primaries in several states in recent weeks. This means that the political careers of Texas Senator John Cornyn, Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy and Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie are at stake – people whom Trump has described as “disloyal” (Cassidy) and “a bad guy” (Massie).

But primaries say little about public opinion in the country at large. The Fox poll is in line with other opinion polls published in recent weeks that have made headlines in American media. Forbes magazine recently noted that the president's support is falling in four out of five polls and is now at its lowest level since taking office.

Lower than Biden?

According to Real Clear Politics' compilation of 14 current polls, 39.6 percent currently give Trump a thumbs up for his job performance, while 58.6 percent have the opposite opinion.

However, the website Fiftyplusone, an opinion aggregator that weights current surveys using a mathematical model, claims that Trump's support is even lower: 36.4 percent. 60.1 percent believe that the president is doing a poor job.

Opinion expert Nate Silver reports similar figures on his website Silver Bulletin. Silver writes that Trump's support is now lower than both his predecessor Joe Biden's and his own during his first term at the same time.

However, Trump gets slightly better marks when it comes to immigration, where just over 43 percent think he is doing a good job.