As President Trump approaches his 100th day in office on April 29, the Washington Post and ABC News interviewed a random sample of Americans across the country to assess how well he is performing, testing overall impressions as well as perceptions of Trump’s personal qualities and several actions and controversies since he took office.
No honeymoon for President Trump
Presidents typically enjoy a “honeymoon” of cross-party support during their early months in office, but the Post-ABC poll finds 42 percent of Americans approving and 53 percent disapproving of Trump’s performance, making him the first president in modern polling to have underwater ratings ahead of his first 100 days. By comparison, Barack Obama enjoyed a 69 percent approval mark at a similar point in April 2009.
The sources for Trump’s struggles become clearer after breaking down the results by how respondents voted (or whether they voted) in November. A near-unanimous 94 percent of people who voted for Trump approve of his performance today, while 92 percent of those who supported Democrat Hillary Clinton disapprove. Trump faces 2-to-1 disapproval (62 to 29 percent) among people who voted for third-party candidates or didn’t cast ballots.
Trump’s weak standing among those who didn’t vote for him represents an acceleration of a long-term decline in goodwill toward presidents during their early months. Democrat John F. Kennedy enjoyed 63 percent approval among Republicans when he approached the 100-day mark in a April 1961 Gallup poll, and 59 percent of Democrats approved of George H.W. Bush in an April 1989 Post-ABC poll. A mere 36 percent of Republicans approved of Obama at this point eight years ago, but Democrats are even harsher toward Trump, with 13 percent approving today.
Negative views of Trump are higher still — and deeply divided by 2016 preferences — on two questions about empathy, with 61 percent of respondents overall saying he doesn’t understand problems of people like them and 58 percent saying he is “out of touch” with most people’s concerns. On the latter question, Trump fares better than both the Democrat and Republican parties as a whole, with fewer than one-third of respondents saying each is “in touch” with most people’s concerns.
Is Trump delivering on campaign promises?
Americans offer mixed views on whether Trump is delivering on campaign pledges. Some 44 percent say Trump is keeping most of his campaign promises, while 41 percent say he is not. The public splits on whether he is performing better or worse than expected, with Trump and Clinton voters dividing sharply in predictable ways.
When asked how much he has accomplished, a 56 percent majority say he has not accomplished very much or has accomplished little or nothing. Among those who say Trump has not accomplished much — a group that leans Democratic — nearly half say Trump is responsible for the lack of progress, while about a quarter blame Republicans and 7 percent blame Democrats.
Trump has changed his position on several issues since entering office, and the public appears to have noticed. A 55 percent majority says Trump does not follow consistent principles, including 48 percent who say this is a problem, while 40 percent say Trump’s principles are consistent. Almost 8 in 10 Trump voters say he’s been consistent, while the same share of Clinton voters say he has not. The rest of the public is closer to Democrats on this question.
Trump’s personality
Across five personal attributes, Trump fares best on strength, with 53 percent saying he is a strong leader, including a relatively high 25 percent of Democrats. Over half the public tilts negatively on other attributes, with a slight majority saying Trump cannot be trusted in a crisis and larger percentages doubting his judgment, temperament and honesty.
Methodology
The Post-ABC poll was conducted April 17-20 among a random national sample of 1,004 adults interviewed on cellular and landline phones. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
Source: Washington Post-ABC News polls (Reagan-Trump), Gallup polls (Eisenhower-Carter)
