Trump Clings To Solid Ratings For Leadership, Despite Dems’ Ongoing Negative Views: I&I/TIPP Poll Terry Jones
President Donald Trump’s eventful presidency continues to leave most Democrats and independents unimpressed, but he gets top grades from Republicans, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows. Can he build on recent policy successes to improve his standing with non-GOP voters, or will Trump’s strong personality, offhand remarks, and bold leadership style alienate them?
Each month, I&I/TIPP asks voters to gauge presidential favorability, leadership, and performance. In the just-finished national online poll of 1,421 adults taken from June 25-27, Trump’s grades from voters remain little changed.
Asked to gauge his leadership, 44% of voters gave the second-term president “favorable” ratings, while 45% gave him “unfavorable” ratings. The poll has a margin of error of +/-2.7 percentage points.
But major voting blocs, based on party affiliation, region, and gender, remain sharply split over how they view Trump’s leadership.
Democrats, for instance, give Trump a 77% unfavorable rating, with just 16% calling his tenure so far favorable. Independents are only marginally less harsh: 55% unfavorable, 30% favorable.
Republicans remain happy, if not ecstatic, with Trump’s leadership, giving him 80% favorable to only 12% unfavorable.
Trump also has solid support among key voting blocs, outside of parties.
For example, Trump has a 51% favorable rating, with just 37% unfavorable, among 25-44 year-olds, the largest voting bloc by number and the only age group he has a net-positive on when it comes to leadership.
By contrast, among those 18 to 24, it’s 32% favorable, 47% unfavorable, net -15; for 45 to 64, it’s 43% favorable, 45% unfavorable, or net -2; and for those 65 and over, just 39% favorable to 55% unfavorable, a net -16.
Then there’s this surprising regional result: Trump gets his highest favorability ratings in the West, 48% favorable to 41% unfavorable, a net +7 rating. By comparison, in the Northeast he receives 41% favorable, 48% unfavorable, net -7; and in the Midwest, it’s 42% favorable, 46% unfavorable, net -4.
I&I/TIPP next asks a slightly different question: “In general, do you approve or disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president, or are you not familiar enough to say one way or the other?”
Overall, the responses were neck and neck again, with 44% approve, 45% disapprove, within the margin of error. Another 7% were not familiar enough to say, and 5% weren’t sure.
And again, the political split was pronounced. Democrats (16% approve, 79% disapprove) and independents (30% approve, 53% disapprove) have not been convinced by Trump’s successes so far. But Republicans (81% approve, 11% disapprove) have been convinced, overwhelmingly so.
Trump also suffers a bit from a gender gap. Male poll respondents gave him a 51% approval, 39% unfavorable, for a net +12. Women? Only 37% approved of Trump, versus 51% who disapproved, a net -14. So it’s not a gender gap; it’s a gender canyon.
What’s behind it? It’s mostly a married woman versus unmarried woman gap. Among married women, 45% approve of Trump, while 42% disapprove, for a net +3. Unmarried women couldn’t be more different: just 32% approve, while 56% disapprove, for a huge net -24.
I&I/TIPP also asks voters to gauge presidential leadership another way: By perceived “strength,” or “weakness.”
Perhaps not too surprisingly, the answers on this question lean toward “strength.” Of those answering the poll, 45% called Trump’s leadership either “very strong” (28%) or merely “strong” (17%). That compares to 37% who found him either “very weak” (28%) or just “weak” (9%).
Another 13% termed Trumpian leadership “moderate.” So, overall, those readings that didn’t indicate weakness for Trump was roughly 58%.
(Below: The TIPP Presidential Leadership Index measures public sentiment over time by combining three components: favorability, job approval, and presidential leadership. The index ranges from 0 to 100, with readings above 50 indicating optimism and below 50 signaling pessimism. In July, the overall index stood at 50.1, with Republicans most optimistic at 85.7, Democrats least at 19.9, and independents in between at 38.0.)
Finally, there is a question about how Trump is handling 16 individual policy decisions, ranging from the economy and the Israeli-Hamas conflict to trade and tariffs and education. This measure uses a familiar A through F grading system, such as that used in most schools across the nation.
Overall, voters give Trump 41% “excellent” and “good” grades for his policy performance so far. That’s A’s and B’s.
Best scores went to: “Handling the immigration, border security situation” (45%); “Restoring America’s Core Values” and “Handling of Iran” (both 41%); and “Handling the Israel-Iran conflict” (40%).
The lowest scores went to: “Handling of Health Care” (34%), followed by a cluster of issues including: “Handling of China” (35%); and “Handling of Russia,” “Handling of North Korea,” “Handling of Energy Policy,” and “Handling spending and taxes,” all clumped together at 36%.
What About Vice President J.D. Vance?
Overall, 39% have a favorable view of him, while 37% do not. Nearly 25% say they don’t know enough about him to offer an opinion. Republicans view him favorably by a margin of 69% to 11%. Among Democrats, only 17% hold a favorable view, compared to 26% of independents. Interestingly, 33% of independents have no opinion of him.
Unfortunately for Trump, his scores might not rise much, given the overwhelmingly negative coverage of his presidency by the mainstream media, which still reaches a substantial, if shrinking, share of the U.S. public. That includes the biased judgments of supposed fact-checkers.
In the last two months alone, Trump brokered ceasefires in conflicts between India and Pakistan in South Asia, Israel and Iran in the Middle East, and Rwanda and the Republic of Congo in Africa. His bombing of Iran’s nuclear program no doubt also saved thousands of human beings from being incinerated.
Any Democratic president would likely have been hailed as a great peacemaker in the media, but not Trump. Apart from passing mentions, those recent Trump achievements received little positive coverage by the big media.
Nor does Trump get credit for more mundane matters: declining inflation, rising real wages, and continued economic growth, despite earlier predictions by some of a deep recession.
It’s always been so. This headline could have been written just yesterday: “Do The Media Hate Trump? Yes, And From The Very Start Of His Presidency, New Survey Shows.”
But in fact, it was an Issues & Insights headline from October 2017, based on a Pew Research report showing “coverage of Trump’s initial weeks in office has been the most skewed and biased, by far.”
To be sure, Trump’s cocksure demeanor and political bravado wear thin with some. But, while there’s no arguing with success, it seems that as long as Trump occupies the White House, the biased big media will relentlessly pick apart all that he does.
I&I/TIPP publishes timely, unique, and informative data each month on topics of public interest. TIPP’s reputation for polling excellence comes from being the most accurate pollster for the past six presidential elections.
Terry Jones is an editor of Issues & Insights. His four decades of journalism experience include serving as national issues editor, economics editor, and editorial page editor for Investor’s Business Daily.
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