The rallying effect that had been boosting Donald Trump’s approval rating over the past week is starting to diminish, according to new data.
A poll conducted by Hill/HarrisX shows that approval of the president’s coronavirus response has plunged six points in just three days as the U.S. outbreak dramatically worsens.
In a survey conducted March 22-23, 56 percent of Americans said they thought Trump was managing the crisis well, with 44 percent disapproving.
Three days later in the same poll conducted March 26-27, his coronavirus approval dropped six points to 50 percent and his disapproval jumped by six points to 50 percent.
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The Hill reports that the rapid decline seems to be a response to Trump’s absurd and dangerous idea that America should start to reopen the country and get back to work by Easter – something that virtually no medical expert agrees with.
With Trump spending the last several days lashing out at the media and Democratic governors, it’s possible that these numbers will continue to decline as the American people see that this president is incapable of meeting this moment.
Trump’s benefit of the doubt is beginning to wear off
During any major crisis, the American people generally give the president some leeway to manage it. Nobody wants to see the country fail, after all, regardless of the political party with which they affiliate.
But this benefit of the doubt quickly wears off if the American people see that the crisis isn’t getting better, or – as is the case with the coronavirus outbreak – it gets substantially worse.
The longer this health emergency goes on and the less Trump pretends to care about it, the more clear it has become that the U.S. has handled the pandemic worse than any other country on earth – with the number of infections and deaths rapidly climbing.
The vast majority of the American people may not be focusing on every small detail of this crisis like beltway pundits, but they’re increasingly seeing that Donald Trump’s response to this outbreak has been an unmitigated horror show.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
