A poll found people in the United States trust President Trump slightly more than the national media to give them accurate information about the coronavirus.
A total of 44% of people say they trust the Trump administration to give an accurate account of the virus and tell them what to do during the pandemic, a CBS/YouGov poll found. Forty-three percent of respondents said they trust the national media to do the same. The poll was conducted with 2,190 U.S. residents interviewed between March 21-23 and has a margin of error of 2.3 percentage points.
Trump has used daily briefings in recent days to provide updates on a virus that has infected at least 53,000 people in the U.S. and lead to more than 700 deaths in the country.
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The president has urged for calmness since the outbreak began several weeks ago, and he vowed to defeat what he calls a “silent” enemy seeking to destroy the country.
“Our country was not meant to be shut down,” Trump said Tuesday.
The national media has criticized Trump for not being more prepared to deal with the outbreak, an assertion Trump has addressed head-on.
“I watch and listen to the Fake News, CNN, MSDNC, ABC, NBC, CBS, some of FOX (desperately & foolishly pleading to be politically correct), the [ New York Times] & the [ Washington Post],” Trump tweeted over the weekend. “[A]ll I see is hatred of me at any cost. Don’t they understand that they are destroying themselves?”
Trump’s approval ratings have seen an uptick since the outbreak began, new polls show, with half of people saying they approve of the way he has handled the coronavirus.
Trump said Tuesday he hopes to have the U.S. economy, which has been severely slowed since the virus arrived in the U.S., opened again by Easter Sunday.
