Florida poll shows a slight improvement for Trump
After watching the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency, Florida voters are deeply divided over his performance. A Florida Atlantic University Poll issued Wednesday found 41 percent of Florida voters approve and 44 percent disapprove of his performance. Bright spots for the president: The new poll shows a slight downward trend in Florida voters’ disapproval of his performance. In the last FAU poll, conducted in November, Trump’s performance had 41 percent approval and 47 percent disapproval.
He continues to score better in Florida than nationally. The RealClearPolitcs average of national polls show Trump’s approval at 42 percent and his disapproval at 54 percent. His negatives include: Nearly four out of 10 Florida voters want to see Trump impeached. Driven largely by Democratic animosity, 39 percent of those surveyed said he should be impeached; 45 percent are against impeachment.
He’s still a highly polarizing figure. There’s a big gender gap. People with more education express greater disapproval. And Republicans are overwhelmingly supportive of Trump and his policies on a range of issues, while Democrats are overwhelmingly opposed.
For example, the move to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel — changing decades of U.S. policy in the Middle East — was backed by 44 percent of Florida voters and opposed by 31 percent. The policy change was supported by 72 percent of Florida Republicans, 36 percent of no party affiliation/independent voters, and 23 percent of Florida Democrats.
The poll from the Florida Atlantic University Business and Economics Polling Initiative was conducted Thursday through Sunday — at the end of a week in which Trump delivered his first State of the Union address and as the news was dominated by coverage of a controversial memo his allies used to attempt to discredit the investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. election.
Florida voters’ views of Trump haven’t changed dramatically since the election in November 2016, when he won 49 percent of the vote in Florida and Hillary Clinton got 47.8 percent.