High approval rating for Trump in first month: CBS poll
Presidents tend to enjoy high approval ratings when they first enter office, a time in which Americans tend to give the new leader the benefit of the doubt.
MORE than half of US adults say they approve of the job President Donald Trump is doing in his first month in office, according to a CBS News/YouGov poll published on Sunday (Feb 9).
The poll, conducted from Wednesday to Friday of last week, showed Trump had a 53 per cent approval rating. The poll of 2,175 adults had a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.
But despite enjoying a typical post-election honeymoon, many of those surveyed expressed concern that Trump was not doing enough to lower consumer prices, and solid majorities oppose his plans to place tariffs on Mexico, Canada and Europe.
Two-thirds, or 66 per cent, of people in the US say his administration has not focused enough on lowering prices, according to the poll. That includes almost half of Republicans surveyed.
While a majority, 56 per cent, favour 10 per cent tariffs on China that Trump imposed, similar majorities oppose his plans to place 25 per cent tariffs on Mexico and Canada and so far unspecified future tariffs on European nations, the poll said.
Half of Americans in the survey also said Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency teams should have “a lot” or “some” influence over government operations and spending. That figure rises to 74 per cent among Republicans.
Presidents tend to enjoy high approval ratings when they first enter office, a time in which Americans tend to give the new leader the benefit of the doubt. Those poll ratings often change as the presidency wears on.
Former President Joe Biden enjoyed a 57 per cent approval rating in early February of his term; Barack Obama had a 66 per cent approval rating in January 2009 and George W Bush had a 59 per cent approval rating in February 2001. However, Trump had the lowest approval rating in starting his first term of any president in at least 70 years in Gallup polling, with a 44 per cent approval rating in January 2017.
On immigration, 59 per cent approve of his plan to deport undocumented migrants, while half oppose his plan to keep them in large detention centres. His handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict had a 54 per cent approval rate, but 47 per cent of people thought Trump’s idea for the US to take over Gaza would be a “bad idea”. BLOOMBERG
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