President Trump and Race Relations

An AP-NORC Poll conducted in September 2019 assesses American’s views on Trump’s handling of race relations in the United States.

About half of Americans think Donald Trump’s actions as president have made things worse for African Americans, Muslims, women, and Hispanics.

Question: Do you think that the things Donald Trump is doing as President of the United States have been good, bad, or neither good nor bad for each of the following?
Source: AP-NORC poll conducted September 20-23, 2019, with 1,286 adults

Overall, 40% of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing as president and 59% disapprove. The poll was conducted before the release of a memo summarizing Trump’s call with the president of Ukraine.

Sixty-five percent of Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling race relations. Trump fares worst on this issue out of several asked about in the poll, particularly in contrast to his handling of the economy. Most Americans have positive views about the national economy and their own economic circumstances. Sixty-one percent say the condition of the national economy is good and 64% say their financial situation is good.

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Question: Overall, do you approve or disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling…?
Source: AP-NORC poll conducted September 20-23, 2019, with 1,286 adults

Forty-three percent of whites approve of Trump’s handling of race relations, compared with only 5% of blacks and 16% of Hispanics.

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Question: Overall, do you approve or disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling…?
Source: AP-NORC poll conducted September 20-23, 2019, with 1,286 adults

Few Americans, regardless of race or ethnicity, think race relations have improved in the past year nor expect them to get better over the next year.

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Question: In the next year, do you think race relations in the United States will get better, get worse, or stay about the same?/Do you think race relations in the United States are better than they were a year ago, worse than a year ago, or about the same?
Source: AP-NORC poll conducted September 20-23, 2019, with 1,286 adults

The nationwide poll was conducted September 20-23, 2019, using the AmeriSpeak® Panel, the probability-based panel of NORC at the University of Chicago. Online and telephone interviews using landlines and cell phones were conducted with 1,286 adults. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.