The polling bounce for President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus, which defied the Washington conventional wisdom and dismayed Democrats, is starting to fade.
Morning Consult’s tracking poll recorded a 7-point drop from the March 20 peak in public approval of Trump’s management of the outbreak. This follows a CNN/SSR poll released on Monday that found the country split on the subject, with 48% saying Trump was doing a good job dealing with the pandemic and 47% saying he was doing a poor job. Earlier in March, the split was 49%-43% in favor of the job Trump was doing coping with the public health crisis.
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A daily tracking poll by Navigator, a Democratic polling firm, shows 49% approved of Trump’s coronavirus performance, while 48% disapproved. New polling for Daily Kos, a left-wing website, found 51% disapproved and only 42% approved. By a 22-point margin, respondents said the Trump administration “acted too slowly to respond” over “acted in a timely and responsible way.”
The boost in support for Trump’s approach to the coronavirus was fueled in part by Democrats and independents rallying around the president in a crisis. Trump also took a more public-facing role in informing the public about the pandemic and signed into law an emergency spending package intended to soften the economic fallout. Voters may be once again breaking down along partisan lines in terms of how they view the president on this.
More disturbing for Trump is the Morning Consult tracking poll finding an 8-point drop in net approval on coronavirus among Republicans compared to last week. GOP strategist Scott Jennings described dealing with the coronavirus quickly and effectively as “literally the only thing that matters” for Trump’s reelection campaign.
Trump deferred to the experts and kept in place existing federal guidelines on social distancing, despite his concerns about the economy and mounting jobless reports in the face of widespread business closures.
“The president came into office as an outsider and in many ways campaigned against the so-called experts who drove the country into the ditch. So, it is not that surprising that the president might have a frosty relationship with the expert class,” said Republican strategist John Feehery. “That being said, I think he has developed a very good working relationship with Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci, and that has helped him navigate this very difficult situation.”
Trump had recently experienced double-digit improvements in support for his handling of the coronavirus. Even though his numbers remained well below the kind of bounces experienced by previous presidents during crises and were lower than many governors and other Western national leaders during the pandemic, this worried Democrats. Many had assumed that rising death tolls, a collapsing economy, and inaccurate early predictions about the scope and severity of the pandemic would doom Trump’s reelection chances. The president has been ubiquitous, while likely Democratic nominee Joe Biden has been stuck in the basement.
The president’s supporters remain adamant that he can turn things around. “The president draws the greatest value from the best minds in government, who are his partners in this crisis, and he collaborates with the best innovators and biggest producers in the private sector like no one else in American history,” said a source close to the White House. Trump has been working with private companies to increase production of protective face masks and to increase access to ventilators as epidemiologists warn about the virus spreading.
Trump’s overall job approval ratings range from the mid-to-upper 40s.
