Poll Says Trump Broke His Promise About Hiring ‘the Best People’

With just two and one-half months until the midterm elections it is clear that Democrats will use as a major campaign issue the excessive amount of corruption in the Trump administration.

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What is also clear is that Republicans will NOT be campaigning on the issue that President Donald Trump repeatedly campaigned on during his 2016 election: that he would “hire the best people” for his administration.

A new poll that came out Monday shows that by a two-to-one margin Americans do not believe that the president delivered on that promise.

The new Monmouth University Poll found that only 30 percent of respondents believe that Trump has hired the “best people,” with nearly 60 percent saying he has not.

According to Monmouth:

“Most Americans disagree with President Donald Trump’s self-assessment that he hires the “best people.”  The Manafort trial and Omarosa’s book have brought renewed attention to the quality of Trump’s advisers. The majority of the public is not confident in the way the White House staff are doing their jobs. Trump’s overall job rating stands at 43% approve and 50% disapprove.”

Most Americans are not confident in the way that White House advisers and staff are handling their jobs. Few people are very confident (19%) or even somewhat confident (23%) in the president’s advisers.  

“Some observers who were lukewarm about the prospect of a Trump presidency believed that a decent set of advisers would keep him on an even keel. However, fully four in ten Americans have no confidence whatsoever in the people currently advising the President of the United States. That cannot be good,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute.

In addition, Trump’s White House has experienced higher-than-usual turnover which has given the impression of an administration out of control. On top of that, several of his campaign and White House employees have been making negative headlines in recent weeks.

Paul Manafort, who ran Trump’s presidential campaign in the summer of 2016, is awaiting a jury verdict on tax evasion and bank fraud charges. The president has attempted to distance himself from his former campaign chairman, but has been unsuccessful. On Friday Trump that Manafort “is a very good person.” He also said that the day of Manafort’s trial was a “very sad day.” None of this made the public feel more comfortable with the president’s judgment in choosing friends, associates, or staff members.

With respect to Manafort, Murray said:

“This is going to be a long saga. The verdict in this trial could affect public opinion, but there is also a second Manafort trial to come that could also have an impact. And then there’s the actual Russia investigation itself, where opinion has been fairly stable over the past few months.”

Meanwhile, former White House staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman has been in the media over the past week on her press tour to promote her new tell-all book of her time in the White House. She has released a few secret recordings she made during her time in the White House, and has promised to release more.

A majority of the public (54%) feel Trump did not show good judgment when he hired Omarosa, a contestant from his reality show, to work in the White House. Just 17% say the appointment showed good judgment.

“Neither Trump nor Omarosa are coming out of their association in a particularly good light,” said Murray.

Respondents also have a very negative view of how the Trump White House operates in general with just 19 percent saying they are “very confident” in the way that the president’s advisers and staff are handling their jobs.

More than half said they were “not too confident” or “not at all confident.”

Concerning tax reform, the poll found that just 37% of the public approves of the tax plan passed by Republicans last year, and 45% disapprove, with 18% not sure how they feel.

Overall, just 35% of poll respondents said they think that things in the country are going in the right direction. This means nearly two-thirds of Americans do not believe the country is going in the right direction under President Trump and the GOP Congress.

Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.