Recent polling shows that the vast majority of Americans disapprove of President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. No matter how many times Trump lies about his response, the American people see the truth about his failed response. Now, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents are concerned that Trump is going to keep ignoring the advice of experts and lift restrictions too quickly.
See below for a roundup on how the American people view Trump’s (lack of) coronavirus response:
Americans Are Concerned About Lifting Restrictions On Public Activity Too Quickly
An April 20th Yahoo News/YouGov poll found that Americans are opposed to ending social distancing measures too quickly — 71 percent of U.S. adults, including 56 percent of Republicans, are more concerned about lifting covid restriction too quickly than lifting too slowly. The poll also found:
- 71 percent of U.S. adults say they want public health officials to be able to test and trace new cases and outbreaks before reopening the economy.
- A majority of Americans (52 percent) say the U.S. is not conducting enough covid testing to track future outbreaks of the virus.
- More than three-quarters of Americans (77 percent) say the U.S. will not be ready to re-open until at least June. Almost half (48 percent) of Americans say the U.S. will not be ready to reopen until July 1 or later.
- A large majority (60 percent) of U.S. adults oppose protests to reopen the economy — only 22 percent of Americans say they support the protestors.
- A majority (52 percent) of Americans say the federal government, rather than individual states (31 percent), should be responsible for ramping up testing in the coming weeks.
In Pew Research Center’s April 16th survey, 66 percent of U.S. adults say their greater concern is that state governments will lift restrictions on public activity too quickly, while 32 percent said their greater concern was that states would not lift restrictions quickly enough.
- Pew found that majorities of both parties were concerned state governments would lift restrictions on public activity too early — 81 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents and 51 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say their greater concern is governments easing restrictions too quickly.
- 73 percent of U.S. adults say the worst is yet to come when it came to the problems the U.S. was facing from the coronavirus outbreak.This includes 56 percent of Republicans and 87 percent of Democrats.
An April NBC/WSJ poll found similar results — 58 percent of those surveyed say they are worried more that the U.S. moving too quickly to loosen restrictions while 32 percent say they are worried more that the U.S. would take too long to loosen restrictions.
An April Harris poll found that only 13 percent of Americans think measures that have been taken to control the spread of the virus are too strict. 56 percent said measures are reasonable while 31 percent said they want stricter measures.
- Harris also found that majorities agreed we needed to continue with shelter in place orders — 64 percent said we need to continue to shelter in place.
Source: Harris Poll, 4/16/20
An April Economist/YouGov poll found a large plurality (48 percent) of Americans believe the Federal government should be coordinating coronavirus relief efforts — just 27 percent say state governments should be coordinating efforts and 7 percent say local governments should be.
Americans Disapprove Of How Trump Has Handled The Coronavirus Crisis
An April 16th Pew Research Center survey found majorities of Americans disapproved of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus crisis. Among the poll’s key findings:
- Just 39 percent of Americans say Trump has portrayed the coronavirus situation as it really is — a majority of Americans (52 percent) say Trump is making the situation seem better than it really was.
- Most Americans do not think Trump is doing a good job of responding to the needs of hospitals, doctors, and nurses during the coronavirus crisis — 55 percent of Americans say Trump is doing only a fair or poor job responding to such needs.
- A majority of Americans do not approve of how Trump is working with governors — 54 percent of Americans say Trump is doing only a fair or poor job working with state governors.
- 66 percent of Americans surveyed, including 47 percent of Republicans and 85 percent of Democrats, say it is okay for elected officials to criticize the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus outbreak.
An April ABC/Ipsos poll showed that Americans disapprove of the way Trump is handling the coronavirus crisis by 10 points, 54-44.
An April Economist/YouGov poll found that a plurality (45 percent) of Americans believe Trump’s policy is not taking the risks of coronavirus seriously enough. The poll found that only 35 percent of Aemericans believe Trump’s coronavirus policy has been appropriate.
Americans Believe Donald Trump Waited Too Long To Act On The Coronavirus Crisis
An April 20th Yahoo News/YouGov poll found that a large majority of Americans (65 percent) say that Trump could have reduced the damage done by the coronavirus — either “a lot” (41 percent) or “somewhat” (24 percent) — if he had acted sooner.
An April 16th Pew Research Center survey found that nearly two thirds of Americans (65 percent) believe Trump was too slow to address the threat of the coronavirus when cases were first reported in other countries.
Similar to Pew’s findings, an April Harris poll found that 57 percent of voters think the national shut down should have come earlier than it did.
An April Economist/YouGov poll found 52 percent of Americans think Trump waited too long to act in response to the coronavirus.
And Now, Trump’s Approval Rating Is Plummeting Throughout The Coronavirus Crisis
After experiencing an initial bump as coronavirus began to spread, an April 16 Gallup poll shows that Trump’s approval rating experienced a six-point decline in April, the sharpest drop Gallup has recorded for the Trump presidency so far.
