Poll: Majority of Americans now disapprove of federal coronavirus efforts, Trump’s handling of crisis
More than half of Americans now say the federal government has poorly managed the coronavirus’ spread within the United States, according to a new survey, and a majority also disapprove of President Donald Trump’s handling of the public health crisis.
A CNN poll released Wednesday reports that 55 percent of respondents think the federal government has done a “poor job” of preventing the spread of Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, while 41 percent think it has done a “good job” working to thwart the disease’s transmission. Four percent said they had no opinion.
Those ratings represent a growing discontent with the federal government’s response when compared with the previous iteration of the CNN poll, conducted late last month. In that survey, more Americans said the federal government was doing a “good job” of preventing the spread of Covid-19 than those who said it was doing a “poor job,” by a margin of 48 percent to 47 percent. Five percent of respondents in the earlier poll said they had no opinion.
The most recent CNN poll also shows Americans are developing a more solid opinion of the president’s handling of the outbreak. Although the percentage of respondents who disapprove of Trump’s actions have swelled to a majority since early March, from 48 percent to 52 percent, the percentage of those surveyed who approve of the president’s efforts similarly increased, from 41percent to 45 percent. The percentage of respondents with no opinion, however, decreased from 11 to 3.
Meanwhile, approval of Trump’s overall job performance has ticked up over the past month, increasing from 43 percent in early March to 44 percent now, while the number of Americans who disapprove of his performance as president decreased from 53 percent to 51 percent. The share of respondents who had no opinion increased from 4 percent to 5 percent.
The CNN poll was conducted April 3-6, surveying 1,002 adults. Its margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
