Trump approval on handling pandemic drops to 31 percent: poll
President Trump’s approval on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic dropped to 31 percent, according to The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released Monday.
The figure represents a 13-point decline from a similar survey in March, when the pandemic first took hold. Trump’s overall job approval rating also dropped from March — to 35 percent from 43 percent.
The poll results were released on the same day the Republican National Convention kicked off. Trump, who was officially renominated on Monday, is slated to give his acceptance speech on Thursday evening from the White House, an unusual setting for a highly political event.
Trump's support in the new poll came overwhelming from Republican respondents, with 79 percent of them approving of the president's job performance, compared to just 5 percent of Democrats.
Moreover, as Trump prepares to make his case for a second term, the poll found just 23 percent of Americans think the country is heading in the right direction, while 75 percent said they think it’s on the wrong path.
Democrats made Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic a central message at last week’s Democratic National Convention. On Monday, the Democratic National Committee launched an ad attacking Trump’s “mismanagement” of the pandemic, deeming the GOP convention “Republican National Chaos.”
The AP-NORC poll surveyed 1,075 adults. It was conducted Aug. 17-19 and has a margin of error of 4.1 percentage points.