Poll: More than half of Americans strongly disapprove of Trump - NBC News

JAN 19 2018, 6:01 AM ET

Poll: More than half of Americans strongly disapprove of Trump

by MARK MURRAY

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump ends his first year in office with 39 percent of Americans approving of his job performance, according to the latest national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll — the lowest mark in the poll’s history for any modern president ending his first year.

Fifty-seven percent disapprove of Trump’s job, including a majority of respondents — 51 percent — who now say they strongly disapprove, which is a record high for Trump in the survey. That’s compared with 26 percent of Americans who strongly approve of the president’s job.

Among key demographic groups, 46 percent of men, 45 percent of whites and 41 percent of seniors give Trump a thumbs-up, versus 35 percent of those ages 18-34, 33 percent of women, 26 percent of Latinos and 8 percent of African Americans who do.

By party, 78 percent of Republicans approve of the president’s job performance, compared with 8 percent of Democrats and 33 percent of independents.

Trump’s overall approval rating of 39 percent in the NBC/WSJ poll is lower than George W. Bush’s (82 percent), Bill Clinton’s (60 percent) and Barack Obama's (50 percent) at this same point in their presidencies.

Trump’s job rating in last month’s NBC/WSJ poll was 41 percent.

The new NBC/WSJ poll was conducted January 13-17 — after the controversy over Trump’s profane words about immigration from certain countries, during the possibility of a looming partial government shutdown and before the president’s one-year anniversary in office on January 20.

“Disgusted,” “Scared,” “Hopeful,” “Proud”

Asked which words best described how they felt about Trump’s first year as president, respondents' top answers (allowing for multiple responses) were “disgusted” (38 percent), “scared” (24 percent), “hopeful” (23 percent), “proud” (12 percent) and “angry” (11 percent).

“At the time of his inauguration, ‘hopeful’ was the word most used word about the 2016 results,” said Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who conducted this survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff. “But at the end of his first year, ‘disgust’ was the word most cited about him.”

"A dumpster fire," said an independent male from California in summing up Trump's first year in office.

"He does not represent the values of the country," added a female Democrat from Wisconsin. "He has no compassion and he should not be our president."

"I am in awe that he has done so much in a year," said one Republican female respondent from Georgia.

"I think he's doing the best he can with all the negative or fake news, and all the Democrats and Republicans that are against him — the establishment Republicans," added a Republican female from Alabama.

Ranking the accomplishments of Trump’s first year in office

And when asked which one or two accomplishments made them feel the most positive about Trump, 20 percent cited a strong economy and low unemployment; 13 percent said “putting America first;” 10 percent said the tax legislation that Trump signed into law late last year; and another 10 percent said the military successes against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

But 37 percent of Americans said none of the potential responses made them feel positive about the president.

The rest of the NBC/WSJ poll — which was conducted of 900 adults (nearly half reached by cell phone) and which has an overall margin of error of plus-minus 3.3 percentage points — will be released later on Friday.