President Trump’s approval rating hit a new low one week after the violence in Charlottesville, Va., in a newly released poll Wednesday.
According to the Politico/Morning Consult poll, a majority of voters believe Trump did more to divide the country in the wake of the events there.
The poll showed 39 percent of voters approve of the job Trump is doing, compared to 44 percent who approved of Trump’s job performance last week.
Fifty-six percent of those polled disapprove of the president’s job performance.
The drop in Trump’s approval rating could be attributed to a decline in support from Republican voters. According to the poll, 73 percent of Republicans approve of the job the president is doing, compared to 81 percent who approved last week.
In the wake of the clash between white nationalists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville last week, Trump issued three responses to the events over a span of four days. The president denounced the KKK, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists in a statement last week, but then said there were “very, very fine people” on both sides of the protests, and placed blame on the “many sides” involved.
When asked about Trump’s response to the events in Charlottesville, 46 percent of voters said his comments were inappropriate, while 37 percent believed the president’s response was appropriate.
But most of the voters — 53 percent — said the president’s reaction did more to divide the country, rather than unite it.
Politico/Morning Consult polled 1,987 registered voters from Aug. 17 to Aug. 19, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
