U.S. President Donald Trump is a divisive figure. He is praised by half of the country while the other half rejects him as the commander-in-chief. The recent U.S. Presidential Election was no different. While Trump has all but renounced the election results and has lashed out at conservative voice Fox News for projecting a victory for his Democratic challenger Joe Biden, it seems his popularity among his trusted followers is decreasing. According to a recent poll by Fox News, around 42 percent has called him one of the worst Presidents in the country's long illustrated history.
The survey was conducted with 1,007 random registered voters under the direction of Democrats' Beacon Research and Republicans' Shaw and Company pollsters between December 6 to 9. Around 54 percent of them had an unfavorable opinion about Trump while eight percent of them termed his performance as the president below average. He has the approval of 47 percent polled, up from 46 percent in late October.
US in Worse State
The unpopularity grows even larger as 55 percent of the surveyed people said that the U.S. was in worse shape than it was four years ago. Only 32 percent opposed it. The most damaging perhaps was his handling of the Coronavirus crisis that played a key role in his election loss. Under his leadership, the U.S. has become the worst-hit country during the pandemic with over 16 million cases and nearly 300,000 deaths.
While Trump claims to have handled it the best he could, experts have called out several flaws and administrative hurdles. Trump himself refused to accept that it was a big deal in the initial days of the pandemic and reluctantly took action that affected millions of lives. Apart from that, people had an unfavorable opinion about his handling of foreign policy (50% disapproves of it), immigration policies (53%), and healthcare (53%). Surveyed people had a more favorable opinion for Vice President Mike Pence than Trump.
"Only 32 percent think we're better off than before Trump took office. That's one reason why half of the voters say history will judge his presidency negatively," Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who conducted the survey with Democrat Chris Anderson, told Fox News.
Praised for Handling of The Economy
However, President Trump has received positive reviews about the handling of the U.S. economy that is battling a recession due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Around 52 percent approves of his economic policies. His America first policy has yielded some results. He claimed that half a million jobs were created during his first two years in office due to a rise in tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum.
The U.S. Stock Exchange is one area that Trump has always boasted about. The Dow Jones recently hit the 30,000-point mark while the NASDAQ has also more than doubled in value in the last four years. The change in the stock market was visible to the voters even though many experts had said that the boom was caused by stock buybacks from giants like Apple, Google and Microsoft. Apart from that, the U.S. Federal Reserve's trillions of dollars in quantitative easing also had a positive impact that began during Barack Obama's administration.
What's Next?
Trump has remained a controversial figure. His outsider image trumped Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election but a string of policies and failure to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic have cost him dearly. Although he intends to contest the 2024 Presidential Election, it remains to be seen if the GOP leaders approve of him.
In the last two months alone, his reputation has been hurt among the Republicans, especially due to his voter fraud claims. He has sued many Republican-controlled states like Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin for their voting laws, further damaging his party's image. Texas' lawsuit supporting Trump was also rejected by the Supreme Court on Friday.
But Trump has never trusted the polls and if the election is anything to go by, he is not wrong either. Most of the polls heavily favored a blue wave. But instead, it was a close fight with Democrats losing ground in House elections while the party has all but failed to control the Senate as well. The presidential race was closely fought in the battleground states. Hence, in four years' time, Trump could regain support and see Biden out of the White House once again.
But as of now, most (58%) believe the U.S. election was not stolen from him and around 56% say that Trump has weakened American democracy by his voter fraud claims without substantial evidence. As for his 2024 run, 57% don't want him to run again while only 37% think he should.
