Poll: Public confidence falls over Trump’s ability to work with Congress

According to the survey, 46 percent of the public says it is either “very” or “somewhat” confident in Trump’s ability to work effectively with Congress, a drop from 60 percent in December. Fifty-two percent of the public says it is not too confident, or not at all confident, in Trump’s ability to work with Congress.

Last month Trump gave House Republicans a deadline to pass the American Health Care Act, but at the last minute the bill was pulled from the House floor before a vote because centrist and conservative lawmakers couldn’t agree on its provisions. Lawmakers are still negotiating on the bill, but it hasn’t been scheduled for a vote.

One group heavily opposed to the American Health Care Act was the conservative House Freedom Caucus, who said the legislation did not go far enough in repealing Obamacare and in its ability to reduce premiums. Its members were numerous enough to guarantee that the bill would not be able to reach the votes it needed to go before the Senate.

Despite its high profile in blocking the bill’s passage in the House, the Pew survey shows that 42 percent of Americans haven’t heard of the Freedom Caucus, while 39 percent have heard a little. Nineteen percent of the public is familiar with the group, and conservative Republicans are more likely than centrist and liberal Republicans to have heard of it.Despite the inner turmoil over healthcare within the Republican Party, 54 percent of respondents reported said they thought Democrats could do a better job on healthcare than Republicans, compared with 34 percent who thought the same of Republicans.The survey was conducted through phone interviews between April 5 to April 11 using a national sample of 1,501 adults, 18 years of age or older, living in all U.S. states and the District of Columbia.