POLL A WARNING SIGN FOR TRUMP
Direction of U.S. worrying more Republicans
Republicans are more pessimistic about the country’s direction than at almost any other time during Donald Trump’s presidency, as a trio of crises — the coronavirus pandemic, an economic downturn and mass protests over police brutality — buffets his administration.
Only 46 per cent of Americans who identify as Republicans say the country is on the right track, according to a Reuters/ Ipsos poll conducted last week. It is the first time that number has fallen so low since August 2017, when a rally organized by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., led to violent clashes with counter-protesters.
As recently as early March, before the novel coronavirus forced widespread shutdowns across the country, about 70 per cent of Republicans said they were optimistic about the country’s direction.
Trump’s approval rating remains resilient at around 40 per cent, with a large majority of Republicans still approving of his overall performance.
But sustained pessimism among Trump’s supporters could portend potential weakness ahead of November’s election, when he will face Democratic former vice-president Joe Biden, experts said.
A few Republican lawmakers have also spoken out against Trump’s handling of the outcry and have raised questions about their support for his re- election bid, though most have remained quiet or continued to voice support for the president.
On Sunday, however, former secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell endorsed Biden, becoming the first major Republican to publicly back Donald Trump’s rival ahead of November’s election.
Powell, who led the U. S. military during the 1991 Gulf War in Iraq under Republican former president George H.W. Bush and later led the Department of State under president George W. Bush, said Trump has “drifted away” from the U.S. Constitution and posed a danger to the country and its democracy.
“I cannot in any way support President Trump this year,” Powell, who did not vote for the Republican president in 2016, told CNN. Asked if he would vote for Biden, he added: “I will be voting for him.”
In the poll, 37 per cent of Republicans said the country is on the wrong track; 17 per cent of those said they would vote for Biden if the election were held now, while 63 per cent still plan to cast ballots for Trump.
In an election most analysts believe will come down to a handful of closely divided states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, even minor defections or a dip in turnout among the Republican ranks could imperil Trump’s chances.
“It probably should be concerning for the president, even though it’s reasonable to say he still maintains strong support among Republicans,” said Kyle Kondik, an elections analyst at the University of Virginia.
Republicans believe an economic rebound in the fall would bolster his prospects. Friday’s jobs report showed 2.5 million jobs were added last month during the thick of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump touted the gains as the “greatest comeback in American history.”
Trump campaign spokeswoman Erin Perrine said in a statement, “Polling is notoriously wrong. We are five months from the election and any polling now is not a clear indicator of election results. Pollsters were very wrong in 2016 and underestimate voters’ enthusiasm for President Trump every time.”
The pessimism among all Americans has grown since the end of February, when the pandemic began accelerating. But unlike Republicans, large majorities of Democrats and independents already felt the country was on the wrong track; fewer than 7 per cent of Democrats and 19 per cent of independents feel the country is headed in the right direction, down slightly from March, the poll showed.
Matthew Knight, a 48-yearold resident of North Carolina who supported Trump in 2016, said he has been disappointed with Trump’s response to the crises.
“I was going to vote for Trump, but if things don’t get better, I may have to rethink that,” he wrote in an email to Reuters.
The Reuters/ Ipsos poll was conducted online, in English, throughout the United States and gathered responses from 1,113 American adults. It had a credibility interval of plus or minus 3 percentage points.