During times of crisis, people need a leader in the White House they can trust and rely on. New data show that President Trump has simply not lived up to that responsibility during the coronavirus crisis to date.
According to a new Associated Press poll, the public overwhelmingly does not view Trump as a reliable source of information. The nationally representative survey of 1,057 adults found that just 23% say they have high levels of trust in the information the president is providing to the public. That’s right: Three-quarters of the population entertains some level of doubt whether Trump is giving us factual information regarding the coronavirus crisis. And this isn’t a partisan perception, either. Even a majority of Republicans do not fully trust Trump for accurate coronavirus information.
So, too, only 21% of respondents said they would describe the president as “honest,” with an even more pathetic low of 17% saying they view Trump as “disciplined.”
Just 23% of the public trusts the information President Trump provides about coronavirus.
That’s abysmal. pic.twitter.com/Sb6sm1tKg3
— Brad Polumbo (@brad_polumbo) April 24, 2020
Even a majority of Republicans say in new @AP poll they do not trust President Trump for coronavirus information. pic.twitter.com/W3O51YaGAs
— Brad Polumbo (@brad_polumbo) April 24, 2020
That most people feel they can’t trust the president as a reliable source of information during an unprecedented crisis is a disgrace — and, frankly, it’s mostly Trump’s own fault.
Yes, it’s certainly true that many liberal journalists cover the president unfairly. On numerous occasions during the coronavirus crisis, the liberal press corps has undercut Trump without basis, whether it’s wildly overreacting to his “liberate” tweets with false claims he was fomenting violence or else spreading politically correct nonsense that calling the coronavirus the “Wuhan coronavirus,” based on its place of origin, is somehow racist. This has likely unfairly undermined public trust in the White House.
But, mostly, the president has himself to blame.
Trump is the one who flubbed his first national coronavirus address, making multiple massive errors the White House later had to correct publicly. Trump is the one who falsely claimed the Food and Drug Administration approved a coronavirus cure when it had not. And Trump is the one who just on Thursday engaged in ridiculous, fact-free speculation at his press briefing that injections of disinfectant or sunlight could somehow treat the coronavirus.
Here is Dr. Birx’s reaction when President Trump asks his science advisor to study using UV light on the human body and injecting disinfectant to fight the coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/MVno5X7JMA
— Daniel Lewis (@Daniel_Lewis3) April 24, 2020
The White House is now claiming Trump was “taken out of context” by the media in his remarks on coronavirus and disinfectant last night. Here’s the full transcript of what he said: https://t.co/6WIrSJOSKu https://t.co/RcFbPAnhEi pic.twitter.com/b9YLPCOYKa
— Grace Panetta (@grace_panetta) April 24, 2020
These were all unforced errors, made simply as a result of Trump’s carelessness. He has only himself to thank for his abysmal levels of public trust. Trump must take much more care with his claims if he wants these numbers to turn around before November.
