Poll: Public Approval Of Trump’s Coronavirus Response Hits All-Time Low

Public approval of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus response has reached an all-time low, according to a new Ipsos/ABC News poll.

“Thirty-three percent of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the response to the coronavirus, down from 41% three weeks ago,” writes Ipsos, which also notes that Trump’s coronavirus response approval among Republicans has dropped 12 points since the mid-June poll was taken.

Ipsos also adds about the poll: “Seventy-eight percent of Republicans approve of the president’s handling of the COVID-19 response, compared to 26% of Independents and just 7% of Democrats.”

While the poll has been conducted 11 times since March, the president’s slide in coronavirus-response favorability among Republican voters represents the largest drop — 90% to 78% — that has been seen from one poll to the next. The previous low among Republicans was 84%, which was reached back in both late-April and early-June.

Prior to the July poll, Trump’s lowest coronavirus response approval rating among all voters was 39%, also back in early-June. It is now 33%.

The poll’s margin of error is 4.1 points.

Trump’s overall coronavirus approval rating also seems to be aligned with how respondents view the president’s handling of race relations in the country — 67% of Americans disapprove of his handling of race relations, and 32% approve of it.

The poll, which contains a sample size of 711 participants, was conducted several days after the president’s Mt. Rushmore speech defending American principles and ideals, which some media outlets referred to as “dark” and “divisive.”

The mainstream media made this criticism of Trump, in purportedly straight news stories, even though he explicitly said at the time that Americans “embrace tolerance, not prejudice” and that “we believe in equal opportunity, equal justice, and equal treatment for citizens of every race, background, religion, and creed. Every child of every color — born and unborn — is made in the holy image of God.”

The Ipsos/ABC News poll also shows that “fifty-nine percent of Americans believe the U.S. is re-opening the economy too quickly, more than double the number that believe it is happening at the right pace (26%).”

“Views are similar to two weeks ago, when 56% said the reopening was happening too quickly,” writes Ipsos. “There is a nearly 60 percentage point difference between Democrats (84%) and Republicans (26%) on whether we are re-opening too quickly.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci told The Hill in an interview on Thursday that some states should slow down the re-opening process, although he did not suggest shutdowns would be necessary as he did during a separate interview the day before.

“I would think we need to get the states pausing in their opening process, looking at what did not work well and try to mitigate that,” said Dr. Fauci. “I don’t think we need to go back to an extreme of shutting down.”

“I would hope we don’t have to resort to shutdown,” Fauci said on Thursday, adding that such measures “would not be viewed very favorably.”