Trump Administration is Not Competent and Woodward's Book is Accurate, Majority of Americans Say: Poll

Most Americans do not consider President Donald Trump's administration to be competent and indicated a belief in the negative accounts provided by investigative journalist Bob Woodward's book and an anonymous op-ed from a senior administration official, according to a new poll.

Among American adults surveyed, 45 percent said the Trump administration is competent, while 55 percent said they believe Woodward's account in his book Fear: Trump in the White House and the op-ed, an Axios/Survey Monkey poll released Wednesday reveals.

Woodward in his book writes that Trump's inner circle would attempt to control his impulses to avoid disasters for him and the U.S. The Washington Post associate editor wrote that the executive branch had a "nervous breakdown" with senior White House aides going so far as removing papers from Trump's desk to prevent him from signing them into law.

Meanwhile, the senior official in the op-ed wrote: "I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations," and, "There is a quiet resistance within the administration of people choosing to put country first." Trump has bashed both pieces.

While more Americans in the poll said Woodward and the op-ed than in the Trump administration's competence, there was no indication that the two accounts changed Americans' opinions of the president. That may be attributed in large part to the highly partisan results.

Regarding whether the Trump administration is competent, 88 percent of Republicans said yes, and 13 percent of Democrats said no. On the subject of Woodward and the op-ed, 81 percent of Democrats said they agree with the accounts, while only 30 percent of Republicans said the same.

"If two major news bombshells warning of White House chaos don't change things, it's further evidence that Americans' opinions of Trump are set in stone, whether they like him or not," the Axios report stated.

In fact, Trump's administration fared better in the new poll than in a similar Survey Monkey poll in October and November 2017, in which 41 percent said the administration is competent and 57 percent said it is not competent.

The new poll was conducted from September 12 to 13 with 2,173 American adults and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The Axios report concluded: "There's very little that can change people's opinions of Trump at this point, and it's going to take more than a book and an op-ed to change that."