Approval of the way President Donald Trump is managing the government has dropped sharply since early in his second term, according to a new AP-NORC poll, with much of the rising discontent coming from fellow Republicans.
The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research was conducted after Democrats’ recent victories in off-year elections but before Congress took major steps to try to end the longest shutdown in U.S. history. It shows that only 33% of U.S. adults approve of the way the Republican president is managing the government, down from 43% in an AP-NORC poll from March.
That was driven in large part by a decline in approval among Republicans and independents. According to the survey, only about two-thirds of Republicans, 68%, said they approve of Trump’s government management, down from 81% in March. Independents’ approval dropped from 38% to 25%.
The results highlight the risks posed by the shutdown, which Trump and his administration have tried to pin squarely on Democrats, even as U.S. adults have cast blame on both parties as the funding lapse has snarled air traffic, left hundreds of thousands of federal workers without paychecks and compromised food aid for some of the most vulnerable Americans. But it could also indicate broader discontent with Trump’s other dramatic — and polarizing — changes to the federal government in recent months, including gutting agencies and directing waves of mass layoffs.
Trump’s approval on government management erodes among Republicans
Republicans have generally been steadfast in their support for the president, making their growing displeasure particularly notable.
“I’m thoroughly disturbed by the government shutdown for 40-something days,” said Beverly Lucas, 78, a Republican and retired educator who lives in Ormond Beach, Florida, and compared Trump’s second term to “having a petulant child in the White House, with unmitigated power.”
“When people are hungry, he had a party,” she said, referring to a Great Gatsby-themed Halloween party held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. “I thought he seems callous.”
The survey found an overwhelming majority of Democrats, 95%, continue to disapprove of Trump’s management of the federal government, compared with 89% in March.
Trump’s overall approval holds steady
Even with the decline in support for his management of the government, Trump’s overall approval rating has remained steady in the new poll. About one-third of U.S. adults, 36%, approve of his overall handling of the presidency, roughly in line with 37% in an October AP-NORC poll. Approval of his handling of key issues like immigration and the economy have also barely changed since last month.
Health care emerged as a key issue in the shutdown debate as Democrats demanded that Republicans negotiate with them to extend tax credits that expire Jan. 1. But Trump’s approval on the issue, which was already fairly low, has barely changed.
About one-third, 34%, of Americans said they approved of Trump’s handling of health care in the November poll, compared with 31% in October.
And many of his supporters are still behind him. Susan McDuffie, 74, a Republican who lives in Carson City, Nevada, and retired several years ago, said she has “great confidence in Trump” and thinks the country is on the right track. She blames Democrats for the shutdown and the suffering it’s caused.
“I just don’t understand how the Democrats can care so little about the people,” she said, scoffing at the idea that Democrats were trying to use the shutdown to force Republicans to address soon-to-skyrocket health care costs.
“I don’t have any patience for the Democrats and their lame excuses,” she said, arguing that people who are scared about SNAP benefits expiring and struggling to put food on the table are a more pressing issue.
Plenty of blame to go around
When it comes to the shutdown, there is still plenty of blame to go around. Recent polls have indicated that while Republicans may be taking slightly more heat, many think Democrats are at fault, too.
“I truly do believe it’s everybody. Everybody is being stubborn,” said Nora Bailey, 33, a moderate who lives in the Batesville area in Arkansas and does not align with either party.
After recently giving birth, she said, she faced delays in getting a breast pump through a government program that helps new mothers while her son was in intensive care. And she is worried about her disabled parents, who rely on SNAP food stamp benefits.
Overall, she said she is mixed on Trump’s handling of the job and disapproves of his management of the federal government because she believes he has not gone far enough to tackle waste.
“I don’t see enough being done yet to tell me we have downsized the federal government instead of having all these excess people,” she said.
It’s possible that Trump’s approval on handling the federal government will rebound if the government reopens. But the showdown could have a more lasting impact on perceptions of the president, whose approval on the economy and immigration has eroded slightly since the spring.
Lucas, the Florida Republican, said shutdowns in which civilians aren’t paid are the wrong way to address ideological disagreement.
“Air traffic controllers? Really? You want to not pay the people in whose hands your lives are every day?” she said. “We need to be addressing these conflicts like intelligent people and not thugs and bullies on the playground.”
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Colvin reported from New York.
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The AP-NORC poll of 1,143 adults was conducted Nov. 6-10 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
