President Donald Trump received some of his highest approval ratings of 53-42 percent when it came to handling the United States economy, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday. There was little other good news from the poll, however, with a majority of Americans disapproving of Trump's performance on every other major issue.
Last month, the Commerce Department said the country's gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 3.5 percent during the third quarter that ended in September, which followed the second quarter's 4.2 percent growth rate. As a whole, the economy also had one of its best six-month stretches over the past 10 years by the end of the third quarter. But economic analysts and the Federal Reserve have warned they believe that sort of growth will likely not continue for long.
Still, for the time being, Trump is getting credit. A Gallup poll on Monday showed similar results for Trump's approval rating on handling the economy: 53-44 percent.
While the president had strong grades on the economy, American voters indicated they did not have the same satisfaction with Trump when it came to other major issues and personal character traits.
Voters polled said they disapproved of Trump's overall job performance by 54-41 percent. The president also received negative results when it came to his handling of foreign policy, immigration issues, gun policy, race relations and the California wildfires. His disapproval rating of 31-51 percent on handling the California wildfires could be attributed to his recent threats to withhold federal aid to the state and his suggestion that a lack of raking leaves led to the fire.
"Despite recent market downturns, voters are upbeat on what President Donald Trump has brought to the economy but underwhelmed by just about every other aspect of the Trump tenure," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the poll.
When it came to character traits, the president also performed very poorly. Most respondents, sometimes by a margin of two-to-one, said Trump does is not level-headed, a strong person, honest or intelligent, does not have good leadership skills or care about the average American, and does not share voters' values.
"Not honest, not level headed, not empathetic," Malloy said. "The surging economy is offset by deep questions about the president's character and conduct."
Respondents said they disapproved of how both Republicans and Democrats handle Congress but were in favor of Democrats gaining control of the House. The poll indicated that Democratic voters support Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi of California to recapture her post as speaker of the House, something that a list of 17 House Democrats have already said they would not support.
One of those Democrats, Congresswoman Marcia Fudge of Ohio, had been publicly considering running against Pelosi once the new session begins in January. Fudge said she would announce her formal decision after Thanksgiving. However, in a statement released on Tuesday, Fudge said she decided to back Pelosi and will not run against her.
Voters also said that Trump should release his tax returns and be investigated by Congress if he chooses not to, and said that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation is "fair." Those are all positions that are consistent with past polls. Forty-four percent of respondents did say they believed the investigation was a "political witch hunt," a term often used by the president, rather than one that is "legitimate." The poll indicated that most Americans still thought Mueller should not be fired, including 52 percent of Republicans polled, something that has been called into question since the firing of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions was followed by the interim appointment of Matthew Whitaker.
The Quinnipiac survey was conducted among 1,046 registered voters by landline and cellphone from November 14-19. The margin of error was +/- 3.5 percentage points. Of the respondents, 24 percent said they were Republican, 33 percent Democrat, 33 percent Independent and 9 percent said they did not consider themselves any of those.
Update: This story has been updated to include Marcia Fudge's decision to not run against Nancy Pelosi for Speaker of the House.
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About the writer
Ramsey Touchberry is a Washington Correspondent for Newsweek based in the nation's capital, where he regularly covers Congress.
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