By Julie Pace and Hannah Fingerhut | The Associated Press

April 23, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has made himself the daily spokesman for the nation’s coronavirus response. Yet few Americans regularly look to or trust Trump as a source of information on the pandemic, according to a new survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Just 28% of Americans say they’re regularly getting information from Trump about the coronavirus and only 23% say they have high levels of trust in what the president is telling the public. Another 21% trust him a moderate amount.

Confidence in Trump is higher among his supporters, though only about half of Republicans say they have a lot of trust in Trump’s information on the pandemic — and 22% say they have little or no trust in what he says about the COVID-19 outbreak.

But even as many Republicans question Trump’s credibility during the pandemic, the overwhelming majority — 82% — say they still approve of how he’s doing. That’s helped keep the president’s overall approval rating steady at 42%, about where it’s been for the past few months.

Lynn Sanchez of Jacksonville, Texas, is among those who backs Trump despite reservations about his credibility. Sanchez, who identifies as a political independent, said she trusts “only a little” of what the president says about the crisis, but believes he’s “doing the best he can.”

“He’s contradicted his own health experts a couple of times. I believe he gets carried away and doesn’t sit down and think things through,” said Sanchez, a 66-year-old retired truck stop manager.

The survey’s findings underscore Trump’s rock-solid backing from Republicans, who have been unwavering in their overall support throughout his presidency, despite reservations about his credibility and temperament. If that support holds through the November election, Trump would still have a narrow — but feasible — path to victory.

The findings also raise questions about the value of Trump’s daily briefings from the White House during the pandemic — televised events that often paint a sunny picture of the nation’s pandemic response that runs counter to the experiences of many Americans in cities and states hard-hit by the fast-moving virus. While the briefings are the White House’s main vehicle for getting information to the public, they frequently devolve into forums for the president to berate journalists and critics of the administration.

Trump has personally led the briefings for weeks, with a regular cast of public health officials, Cabinet secretaries and Vice President Mike Pence also taking turns updating Americans on the administration’s response to the health and economic crisis.

Many Americans say they wish Trump were listening to some of those experts more as he navigates the crisis. Specifically, 60% think Trump is not listening to health experts enough.

The leading public health officials advising Trump, Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, have advocated for maintaining strict social distancing measures even as the president and some of his supporters agitate to begin reopening the economy. The survey found the vast majority of Americans — 80% — continue to back requiring Americans to stay in their homes, and a majority doubt that it will be safe to ease restrictions soon.

There is no indication that Trump is ready to step away from the daily briefings. He regularly touts their television ratings, one of his favorite metrics for success. And indeed, the briefings continue to be aired at length on major cable news channels each evening.

Still, this moment of national crisis, with more than 45,000 reported coronavirus deaths in the U.S. and millions of Americans losing their jobs, has done nothing to broaden the president’s appeal.

Just 11% of Democrat say they approve of Trump’s job as president. And 84% of Democrats have little to no trust in information the president is providing about the pandemic.

“I don’t believe a thing the man says,” said Goble Floyd, a 70-year-old retiree from Bonita Springs, Florida. “And that’s sad when so many lives are at stake.”

The pandemic has reshaped the landscape for Trump’s reelection prospects in November, when he will face Democrat Joe Biden. The virus’s swift spread across the country has upended the strong economy the president hoped to run on, leading 26 million Americans to file for unemployment.

It could also overhaul what qualities Americans are seeking from their commander in chief.

There are few metrics in which Trump rates well with the majority of Americans. Just 17% of Americans say Trump is highly disciplined. And when it comes to empathy — often an important intangible in presidential elections — 24% say Trump cares about people like them.

Trump’s highest-rated attribute is leadership. According to the survey, 32% of Americans say strong leader is a very good description of the president, along with 18% who say that describes him moderately well.

When it comes to the nation’s response to the virus, Americans are more inclined to trust and seek guidance from their state and local leaders than the president.

About half of those surveyed said they regularly get information from state and local officials and about the same amount say they have a significant trust in that information. And thus far, a majority of Americans — 63% — say they approve of how states are handling the outbreak, up slightly from three weeks ago.

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AP writer Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,057 adults was conducted April 16-20 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points. Respondents were first selected randomly using address-based sampling methods and later were interviewed online or by phone.

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AP-NORC Center: http://www.apnorc.org/

By Julie Pace and Hannah Fingerhut | The Associated Press

April 23, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are deeply unhappy about the state of their country — and a majority think President Donald Trump is exacerbating tensions in a moment of national crisis, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

With less than five months until Election Day, the survey offers few bright spots for a president confronting a historic pandemic, a sharp economic decline and national outrage over police brutality against black people. Most Americans — including 63% of Republicans — say the country is heading in the wrong direction. And close to two-thirds — including 37% of Republicans — say Trump is making America more divided.

“Instead of bringing us all together, he’s pulling us all apart,” said Donna Oates, a 63-year-old retiree from Chino, California.

Oates said she was a Republican until March, when her mounting frustration with Trump and the GOP prompted her to change her voter registration to the Democratic Party. Trump’s tenure, she said, has made her “dread getting up to turn on the TV and see any of the news.”

That pessimism poses reelection challenges for Trump in his face-off against Democrat Joe Biden. Presidents seeking four more years in office typically rely on voters being optimistic about the direction the country is headed and eager to stay the course — a view most Americans don’t currently hold.

Just 24% say the country is headed in the right direction, down from 33% a month ago and 42% in March. That’s when the COVID-19 pandemic began taking hold in the U.S., killing nearly 120,000 Americans to date and upending most aspects of daily life.

Overall, 37% of Americans say they approve of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak — a dip from 44% in March.

The fallout from the pandemic has been sweeping. Beyond the public health risks, the economy suffered from a sudden jolt as states implemented strict stay-at-home orders. Though some of those restrictions have started to ease and businesses in many places are now beginning to open, the unemployment rate still sits at 13.3%.

The nation has also been jarred by the deaths of George Floyd and other black Americans at the hands of police, which prompted protests across the nation. Trump responded aggressively to the protests, some of which became violent, and vowed to send the active-duty military into states that couldn’t contain the demonstrations. The Pentagon publicly opposed that step and it was never carried out.

Trump’s overall approval rating during this moment of tremendous upheaval sits at 39%. Though that’s down slightly from the 43% who approved of his job performance in February and March, it’s well within the narrow range where his ratings have stayed throughout his time in office. That suggests that the president’s most enthusiastic supporters have remained loyal throughout the pandemic and other crises.

The president’s strongest ratings continue to center on the economy, as has been the case throughout his tenure. About half of Americans say they approve of Trump’s handling of the economy.

Still, that’s down somewhat from 56% approval in March — a warning sign to Trump, who planned to run for reelection on a booming economy, that Americans are attuned to the shifting economic landscape. Even with the dip in the unemployment rate as some businesses reopen, economic forecasts for the rest of the year remain uncertain, particularly as new virus hot spots emerge. Trump’s economic argument has shifted to focus on promises about what the nation’s financial situation could look like in 2021 if he’s given a second term in office.

The protests over police brutality against black Americans have proven to be a particularly searing moment for the nation, as well as Trump’s presidency. And he gets low marks for his handling of them.

A majority of Americans — 54% — say Trump has made things worse during the unrest following the death of Floyd, an unarmed and handcuffed black man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly eight minutes. Seventy-two percent of black Americans and 51% of white Americans think Trump has made things worse following Floyd’s death.

Floyd’s death has prompted a broad discussion about the legacy of racism in America, with business leaders acknowledging inequality in the workplace, prominent brands reconsidering names rooted in racial stereotypes and statues of Confederate figures being taken down across the country.

Trump has expressed sadness over Floyd’s death and backed some efforts to reform policing. But he’s also questioned how systemic racism is in America and suggested that inequalities can largely be addressed by boosting the economy. Just 32% of Americans say they approve of Trump’s handling of race relations, while 67% disapprove.

Views of Trump are particularly negative among black Americans, a group that votes overwhelmingly for Democrats, but one with which the president has been focused on boosting his support ahead of November.

About 9 in 10 black Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling his job overall, and roughly the same percentage disapprove of how he is handling race relations. Among white Americans, 45% approve of how Trump is handling his job overall and 37% approve of how he’s handling race relations.

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,310 adults was conducted June 11-15 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

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AP-NORC Center: http://www.apnorc.org/

By Nicholas Riccardi and Hannah Fingerhut | The Associated Press

September 18, 2020

DENVER (AP) — A majority of President Donald Trump’s supporters plan to cast their ballot on Election Day, while about half of Joe Biden’s backers plan to vote by mail, a sign of a growing partisan divide over how best to conduct elections in the United States.

Overall, 39% of registered voters say they will vote by mail, well above the 21% who say they normally do so, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The rise is skewed toward backers of the former vice president, 53% of whom plan to vote by mail. Fifty-seven percent of Trump’s supporters say they’ll vote in person on Nov. 3.

Fifty-four percent of voters say they will vote before polls open on Election Day. In 2016, roughly 42% of voters did so.

Trump for months has denigrated mail voting, and Democrats have expressed concern about postal delays that could keep such ballots from being counted. The poll finds ebbing enthusiasm for mail voting: Only 28% of Americans say they would favor their state holding elections exclusively by mail, down from the 40% who said so in April as the coronavirus pandemic was first spreading in the U.S. and before Trump launched his anti-mail campaign.

Support for states allowing voters to cast an absentee ballot without requiring a reason is higher, but also down since April, from 56% to 47%.

Sherry Santiago, 55, of Palm Bay, Florida, is disabled and cannot drive. The Democrat said she almost lost her chance to vote in 2016 because she couldn’t get a lift to the polling place and she’s happy to sign up for a mail-in ballot this year.

“I don’t want to take a chance of missing it,” Santiago said of the election. “I have total confidence in voting by mail. I don’t worry there will be a problem.”

But Michelle Harman, 44, a Republican who works in the oil and gas industry in Artesia, New Mexico, plans to vote in person on Election Day.

“This year more than any other, there’s a lot of gray area about what could happen to your vote,” said Harman, who said she didn’t question voting by mail in 2016 when she was out of town.

Traditionally, voting by mail has not been a partisan issue. Until recently, Republicans were more likely to do so than Democrats, because older voters have tended to vote by mail more often than younger voters.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended earlier this year voting by mail as an alternative to face-to-face interactions at polling places, which could pose a risk of coronavirus infection. States have scrambled to adjust to an expected surge in advance voting, with nearly three dozen changing their mail or absentee voting rules in response to the pandemic.

The president has since tried to fan skepticism of mail voting, baselessly claiming that its widespread use will lead to fraud. Trump warned that mail voting could lead to so many people voting that “you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.” He condemned on Thursday the plan in 10 states to proactively send mail-in ballots to registered voters, claiming without evidence it means the result of November’s election would never be accurately determined.

Studies of past elections have shown voter fraud to be exceedingly rare. In the five states that regularly send ballots to all voters, there have been no major cases of fraud or difficulty counting the votes.

The poll found that 33% of Democrats, but just 12% of Republicans, favor mail-only elections. That’s a decline across the board from April, when 47% of Democrats and 29% of Republicans backed the idea. Seventy-two percent of Democrats, but just 25% of Republicans, favor no-excuse absentee voting.

In swing states like Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, Democrats have far outpaced Republicans in requesting mail-in ballots so far this year.

John Mohr, 58, who works at a Dollar General store in Wilmington, North Carolina, asked for a mail-in ballot, but he plans to drop it off at his local elections office. He’s seen videos on Facebook saying — falsely — that mail-in ballots are labeled by party, tipping off postal workers who could throw them out before they reach the elections office.

“I don’t trust the postal service and I sure don’t trust Democrats,” Mohr said. Trump in North Carolina this month called for his supporters to vote twice — once by mail and once on Election Day — to ensure their vote is counted, which would be illegal. The president now urges supporters voting by mail to check at their polling place whether their ballot was received, but Mohr said he doesn’t want to deal with social distancing rules.

“I don’t want to stand there with 50 different rules,” Mohr said.

The poll shows only 34% of Americans have great confidence in the U.S. Postal Service, following a summer of controversy over slowed service resulting from cuts made by Trump’s appointee. Still, 49% say they have some confidence.

Democrats suspect the cuts are an effort to sabotage mail voting, and Trump himself said he’d be happy if the post office got less money to stop Democratic efforts to expand that method of voting.

Robert Schott, a Republican, plans to vote in person because his polling place is 500 yards from his home in Cranford, New Jersey, and is rarely crowded. “It’s easier than going to the post office,” said Schott, 62.

Schott, who dislikes Trump and does not know who he will vote for, spoke as he looked at the ballot that just arrived by mail. Though Trump has criticized that practice, Schott sees nothing wrong with it. Nor does he distrust the postal service.

“If they can’t handle 50 million ballots but they can handle 2 billion Christmas cards, c’mon,” Schott said.

Christopher Roquemore, 47, a Democrat in Montgomery, Alabama, will vote early in person because he’s volunteering as a poll worker on Election Day. “I figure as long as I wear a mask and I wash my hands and do everything I’m supposed to do, it’ll be as safe as going into a grocery store,” he said.

But his parents, who live across the street, will be voting by mail.

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Fingerhut reported from Washington.

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,108 adults was conducted Sept. 11-14 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.

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AP-NORC Center: http://www.apnorc.org/

By Aaron Morrison and Kat Stafford | The Associated Press

September 24, 2020

NEW YORK (AP) — As the decision in Kentucky to bring charges against only one of three police officers involved in the raid that killed Breonna Taylor sparks renewed protests nationwide, a new survey finds support has fallen for demonstrations against systemic racism.

The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that 44% of Americans disapprove of protests in response to police violence against Black Americans, while 39% approve. In June, 54% approved. The new survey was conducted Sept. 11-14, before Wednesday’s announcement that a lone Louisville police officer would be charged in the Taylor case, but not for her actual death.

Overnight, demonstrators in cities from New York to Las Vegas marched through streets and chanted Taylor’s name. Two officers were wounded by gunfire at protests in Louisville, where authorities made close to 100 arrests on charges of damaging businesses, refusing to disperse after curfew and unlawful assembly.

The poll finds the percentage of Americans who believe police violence unequally targets Black Americans and that greater consequences for police brutality are necessary have also fallen from June, when an AP-NORC survey found sweeping changes in how Americans view these issues.

The June survey followed the late May killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, which renewed focus on Taylor’s earlier death, in March. On Wednesday, a Kentucky grand jury declined to charge any officers for their role in Taylor’s killing; she was shot multiple times after officers entered her home using a no-knock warrant during a narcotics investigation. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said an investigation of the case yielded evidence that officers announced themselves before entering.

It was Floyd’s death in Minneapolis — captured on video by witnesses — that sparked several months of nationwide unrest in which hundreds of thousands of Americans protested against systemic racism and police brutality, while others, including President Donald Trump, expressed solidarity with police and law enforcement officers.

The new poll finds the recent shift in opinion is pronounced among white Americans and Republicans, whose views on police violence and racial inequity in policing look closer to the way they did in 2015 after the high-profile police killings of several Black men. Just 35% of white Americans approve of the protests now, while 50% disapprove. In June, 53% approved, while 34% disapproved.

Among Latinos, 31% approve, compared with 44% in June; 63% of Black Americans support the protests, down from 81%, with more now saying they neither approve nor disapprove.

“I was supportive back in June, but after seeing everything up until now, I’m almost dead against them,” said Dave Hipelious, 63, of New Lenox, Illinois, who is a retired pipe fitter in the energy industry.

Hipelious, who is white, said his support for the protests soured when he saw violent unrest, arson and looting that marred the largely peaceful demonstrations following Floyd’s death.

“I was a pretty wild young man,” Hipelious said. “Every time the police stopped me, and every issue I had with them, I was completely in the wrong. I do believe they are doing their job right.”

Eighty-four percent of Black Americans, but just 42% of white Americans and 50% of Latinos, say police more often use deadly force against a Black person than a white person. While 74% of Black Americans say the criminal justice system is too lenient when officers cause injury or death, 47% of white Americans and 50% of Latinos say the same.

University of Michigan political scientist Christian Davenport said the nation has historically seen public support wane among white Americans for social justice movements — what he calls “compassion fatigue.”

“When this was all about the video and the visceral response to seeing someone’s life get squeezed out of them, that’s fine,” Davenport said. “But from the moment that topic is raised to awareness, the clock starts ticking with regards to, ‘How quickly can we resolve this so I can get back to my normal life?’”

The change also comes after months of political sparring between Democrats and Republicans, including Trump. Both sides hope to use the protests to their advantage in the upcoming general election.

Among Republicans, 75% say they disapprove of the protests, up from 56% in June. Just 9% approve, down from 29% then. And more Republicans now describe protests as mostly or all violent, 52% vs. 36%. Among Democrats, 70% approve, and close to half describe them as mostly or all peaceful. Still, roughly as many describe them as a mix of both.

BriAndia Andrews, 21, of Bloomington, Illinois, who is Black, said she believes most of the protests have been done “correctly.” Still, she feels “our voices are not going to be heard once you have people looting and stuff like that.”

Given how race in America has become a key focus of politics this year, Andrews said she believes opinions about the protests among white Americans and Republicans only changed because of Trump’s rhetoric.

“If you’re a Trump supporter and you were also protesting, that could have influenced your opinion of the protests,” she said.

Overall, Americans are less likely than they were in June to say deadly force is more commonly used against a Black person than a white person, 50% vs. 61%. And fewer now say that officers who cause injury or death on the job are treated too leniently by the justice system, 52% vs. 65%.

The poll reflects a reality that, despite an unprecedented show of support for the movement over the summer, a majority have not participated, said the Rev. Starsky Wilson, the incoming president of the Children’s Defense Fund.

“We have malformed memory about what peaceful assembly and public protest has always looked like,” said Wilson, who served as co-chair of the Ferguson Commission, a group that recommended reforms after the 2014 police shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

“Many of the things that we remember fondly now are things that were reviled in the moment,” he said.

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Stafford reported from Detroit.

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,108 adults was conducted using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.

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Online:

AP-NORC Center: http://www.apnorc.org/

By Julie Pace, Hannah Fingerhut and Nathan Ellgren | The Associated Press

October 15, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Less than three weeks from Election Day, majorities of Americans are highly critical of President Donald Trump’s handling of both the coronavirus pandemic and his own illness, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The survey also shows that few Americans have high levels of trust in the information the White House has released about Trump’s health. Initial accounts of the president’s condition were murky and contradictory, and the White House is still refusing to say when the president last tested negative for COVID-19 before his infection became public.

Trump’s illness and hospitalization has refocused the critical final stretch of the presidential campaign on the pandemic, which has killed more than 216,000 people in the United States this year. Democratic challenger Joe Biden has sought to make the election a referendum on the Republican president’s handling of the virus, arguing that Trump has mismanaged the pandemic and cost Americans lives.

The AP-NORC poll suggests many Americans agree with that sentiment, with 65% saying Trump has not taken the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. seriously enough. The poll, which was taken a week after Trump disclosed his own COVID-19 diagnosis, also shows that 54% of Americans disapprove with how the White House handled the episode.

The Rev. Joseph Wiseman, a 49-year-old registered Republican and Biden supporter from Wichita, Kansas, is among them. Wiseman said he was turned off by the president’s “cavalier attitude” toward the pandemic and what he saw as Trump’s “disregard for the health and well-being” of people around him who were exposed to the virus at White House events, as well as when the president drove in a vehicle with Secret Service agents to greet supporters during his hospital stay.

Trump spent four days at a military hospital just outside Washington, where he was treated with an aggressive drug regimen. On Sunday, his doctor said he was no longer contagious, and he’s returned to the campaign trail this week, holding rallies in battleground states across the country.

The president was eager to return to campaigning in part to send a message to Americans that they should not allow the virus to consume their lives. It’s a message that has been well-received by some of the president’s supporters.

“I think that from the start to the finish that he came through quite rapidly and he’s back out there,” said Jim Gula, 71, a Republican and Trump supporter from Jacksonville, Florida. “And I think that’s a reflection on the overall people who have come down with a positive test.”

The pandemic upended Trump’s plans to spend 2020 running on a strong economic record, thrusting him instead into the role of a president governing through crisis. He’s repeatedly tried to downplay the impact of the virus, even after his own illness, and has opposed some of the more stringent safety measures recommended by his own administration.

With early voting already underway in much of the country, national polls show Biden leading Trump by a comfortable margin, though many battleground states remain competitive. The president is spending much of this week campaigning in states that should be comfortable territory for him, including Iowa and Georgia, which hasn’t voted for a Democrat for president since 1992.

The race has remained relatively stable for weeks, with Trump unable to gain significant ground on Biden through his efforts to refocus on a “law and order” message aimed at rallying white suburban voters or through his nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court seat that opened after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

According to the poll, which was largely conducted before Barrett’s Senate hearings this week, Americans were divided over her confirmation. Thirty percent favored the confirmation, 35% opposed and 34% said they held neither opinion. Republicans were much more likely to support the confirmation than Democrats.

Trump heads into Election Day with a 39% overall approval rating from Americans, on par with his approval ratings over the course of his presidency. But there are other warning signs for him in the AP-NORC poll.

Seventy-four percent of Americans say the country is heading in the wrong direction, including half of Republicans.

And though the majority of Republicans, 83%, approve of Trump’s overall job performance, fewer, 70%, are supportive of his handling of the pandemic. Republicans also showed some skepticism of the White House’s handling of Trump’s diagnosis, with just half saying they trusted the information provided to the public “a great deal” or “quite a bit.”

The president continues to earn more praise for his handling of the economy: 49% of Americans approve, and 51% disapprove. With unemployment still high and the fate of many businesses uncertain due to the pandemic, 61% of Americans described the nation’s economy as poor.

But about two-thirds of Americans say their personal financial situation is good, which has remained consistent since before the pandemic.

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,121 adults was conducted Oct. 8-12 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

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Online:

AP-NORC Center: http://www.apnorc.org/.