President Trump does not appear to be enjoying the surge in popularity usually seen as the nation unites behind its leader during an emergency situation. There was a late-March spike in his approval ratings as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold.
But the surge in popularity quickly fell back to the mid-40 percent range, where they were before the death toll and jobless claims exploded. Trump’s approval rating during the 3 years of his presidency has stayed in the mid-40 percent range only because of his committed minority of supporters.
The short period of time where his job rating did spike still lagged far behind U.S. governors and world leaders, as well as previous American presidents during a crisis or a war. After rising to his highest-ever 47.4 percent rating on April 1, Trump’s approval began to fall and stood at 45.2 percent as of Thursday, reports NBC News.
On Wednesday, six different polls were released, with all six showing Trump’s approval rating was below 50 percent, ranging between 40 percent and 45 percent. The polls with trendlines from weeks earlier showed a definite uptick in the percentage of those critical of Trump’s coronavirus crisis response.
Trump has tried to portray himself as a “wartime” president, given to leading the Coronavirus Task Force news briefings nearly every day. However, Trump has taken to veering off-track, turning the briefings into a campaign rally.
Democrats have run campaign ads berating Trump for his mishandling of the coronavirus outbreak, noting that he ignored the early warnings and downplaying the outbreak until mid-March after he initially compared it to the flu and assured the country the virus would “disappear.”
In related news, Business Insider noted that when it comes to Trump’s coronavirus response in Florida, a key swing state, his approval rating is underwater. However, infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci basks in an approval rating of 85 percent, according to a poll published by the University of North Florida on Monday.
