Poll: Trump's Coronavirus Bounce Fizzles

More voters say the administration of President Donald Trump isn’t doing enough to combat the coronavirus outbreak, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.

News ID: 449871

Date: 03 April 2020 - 12:07

RNA - The survey, conducted immediately before Trump announced a 30-day extension of his physical and social distancing guidelines “to slow the spread” of Covid-19, shows 47 percent of voters feel the administration isn’t doing enough in response to the outbreak, greater than the 40 percent who feel the administration is doing the right amount.

Two weeks ago, 43 percent said the administration wasn’t doing enough in the days following the initial measures deployed to reduce the impacts of the virus, while 39 percent said it was doing the right amount.

While the new poll was conducted before the extension of the household isolation recommendations, it comes as other polls suggest the positive marks Trump earned for his early response to the crisis are turning more negative.

A CNN/SSRS survey released Monday showed Americans split evenly on whether the federal government has done a good or bad job handling the outbreak, and two Democratic polls conducted in recent days — from Navigator and Daily Kos/Civiqs — show more respondents say they disapprove of the way Trump is handling the situation then in surveys conducted last week.

That is despite Trump's previous polling bounce, as some Democratic and independent voters rallied behind him during the early days of the crisis.

A separate Morning Consult tracking poll shows Trump’s net approval on handling coronavirus — the difference between the percentage who approve and disapprove of his job performance — sliding 7 points off its high from March 20.

In the POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, Trump’s overall approval rating is unchanged from last week, as 45 percent of voters approve of the job he is doing as president, and 52 percent disapprove.

Voters are increasingly worried about the coronavirus, as 60 percent say they are “very concerned” about the outbreak, up from 53 percent last week and 41 percent two weeks ago. Similarly, 41 percent of voters say the virus has been “very disruptive” to their lives, up from 35 percent last week and only 18 percent the week before that.

Asked about how he is handling the outbreak, a quarter of voters, 25 percent, say Trump is doing an “excellent” job, while an additional 18 percent rate his performance as “good”. But nearly as many as that 43 percent giving Trump positive marks say he’s done a “poor” job, 40 percent. Eleven percent say the job Trump has done has been “just fair”.

Trump’s ratings pale in comparison to those for the governors of the various states. A combined 62 percent say their state’s governor has done an “excellent” or “good” job handling the crisis.

While the poll was conducted entirely prior to Trump’s announcement that his administration would recommend another month of social distancing, voters predicted it wouldn’t be safe to return to business as usual in April. Only 10 percent say it would be a good idea to stop social distancing in the next two weeks, and 20 percent said it would be a good idea in the next month.

But voters do expect this the current disruption to recede in the months to come. Respondents were split about whether it would be a good idea (38 percent) or a bad idea (37 percent) to end social distancing in the next two months. But 46 percent think it’s a good idea for it to end in the next three months, and a 54 percent majority says it’s a good idea in the next six months.

The overwhelming majority of voters, 85 percent, approve of the rescue package passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump last week, the poll shows. Only 8 percent disapprove.

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