Donald Trump: polls of approval and favorability

[pbrower2a]

PPP has usually been one of the more Republican-friendly pollsters due to its screen. But Donald Trump took a loss of 5% in approval and a jump of 5% in disapproval to 39-54. Both are just outside the margin of error -- but that means that the difference must be recognized as significant.

Here are (some) highlights of Public Policy Polling’s newest national poll.

Quote:Guns

PPP’s newest national poll finds that Americans like the high school students leading protests against gun violence across the country a whole lot more than they like the NRA. The high school students receive a positive 56/34 favorability rating for their efforts, while the NRA is upside down with 39% of voters seeing it favorably and 44% negatively.

There’s 87% support for background checks for all gun buyers, compared to only 8% of voters who are opposed to that. That policy has the backing of 89% of Democrats and 85% of Republicans and independents. It’s hard to find anything 87% of Americans agree on- in fact on this same poll we found that only 81% think the sky is blue with 11% disputing that notion.

We also found 64/26 support for a ban on assault weapons, again with bipartisan agreement. Democrats (78/15), independents (61/25), and Republicans (49/40) are all in agreement. In general 60% of voters say they want stronger gun laws to 32% who are opposed.

One new gun proposal voters don’t like though is giving them to teachers. Only 35% of voters think that’s a good idea, to 53% who say it’s a bad one.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump has one of the worst approval ratings we’ve found for him since he took office this month, with only 39% of voters approving of the job he’s doing to 54% who disapprove. 54% of voters wish Barack Obama was still President, to only 40% who are glad that Trump is.

Trump fares poorly on several basic leadership metrics. 52% of voters characterize him as a ‘liar,’ to 41% who disagree with that description. 57% of voters still want to see his tax returns, to only 38% who are alright with him keeping them private. And just 38% think he has delivered on his core promise to ‘Make America Great Again,’ to 54% who say he has not.

In hypothetical match ups for reelection Trump trails Joe Biden 56-39, Bernie Sanders 55-39, Elizabeth Warren 51-40, Cory Booker 49-39, Kamala Harris 43-39, and Kirsten Gillibrand 42-40. Trump is consistently at 39% or 40% no matter who you poll him against.

Stormy Daniels

We also tested Trump against 2 other hypothetical opponents- although they are one and the same. In groundbreaking research PPP determined that someone’s porn star name costs them 10 points as a candidate for President. Stephanie Clifford leads Trump 42-41 in a hypothetical match up for reelection. But tested under her stage name of Stormy Daniels, she trails Trump 41-32. Trump’s 41% is consistent across the two match ups, but when Clifford shifts to Daniels she loses 10 points of her support.

60% of voters think it’s immoral if Trump had an affair with Daniels, to 21% who say it’s not immoral. Trump voters are pretty divided on the question though- only 41% think it’s immoral if he had an affair with Daniels to 33% who say it’s not and 26% who are not sure.

We also as an experiment asked voters if they think it would be immoral if Bill Clinton had an affair with Daniels. Trump voters think that would be immoral by an 18 point margin (46/28) compared to just the 8 point margin for Trump having an affair with Daniels. Hillary Clinton voters were more consistent, saying it would be immoral for Trump to by a 60 point margin (74/14) and saying it would be immoral for Bill Clinton to by a 62 point margin (75/13). Still the Trump Presidency seems to have shifted the moral standards Republicans hold Bill Clinton to quite a bit compared to what they were 20 years ago.

Other items:
Americans
Disapprove of President Trump congratulating Russian President Vladimir Putin on re-election 37-45.
Believe that the Trump campaign coordinated with Russian  interests in the 2016 election, 46-41.
Approve/disapprove of the FBI,  47-32
Believe that the Russia story is 'fake news', 37-50
Want the President to resign if he is proved to have won through foreign connivance, 54-39
Want Robert Mueller fired, 26-57
Mental stability  of the President, 46-47
President honest/dishonest, 40-53
Protecting "Dreamers", 64-23
Generic ballot for Congress: Democrats 50 Republicans 39
Approval , Speaker of the House Paul Ryan 23-58
Approval, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell 12-62
Congress as a whole 10-73