Terry Jones writes for Issues and Insights about Americans’ current assessment of President Donald Trump’s administration.
On Feb. 24, President Donald Trump gave what many, including some critics, thought was one of the most effective presidential State of the Union speeches of recent decades, if not ever. But it barely moved the needle when it comes to his presidential favorability ratings, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.
In the March online national I&I/TIPP Poll, taken from Feb. 24 to Feb. 27 by 1,456 adults, Trump showed only slight improvement on the lead presidential leadership question: “Overall, is your opinion of Donald Trump generally favorable, generally unfavorable, or are you not familiar enough to say one way or the other?”
Among those responding to the poll, which has a margin of error of +/-3 percentage points, 42% gave Trump a “favorable” rating, while 49% gave him an “unfavorable” score, for a net minus-7 percentage points.
That’s only marginally better than February’s 41% favorable, 50% unfavorable rating, with a net of minus-9 percentage points.
A look at the breakdown by political affiliation shows clear erosion in one area: independents.
Among Republicans, Trump’s favorability rating stood at 82%, up from 77% a month earlier, while the GOP “unfavorable” score fell to 13% in March, down from 17% a month before. That’s a swing to a plus-68 percentage point reading, up eight points from February’s 60.
Democrats? They showed little change in March. They gave Trump a 13% favorable rating and an 82% unfavorable number, a slight improvement on February’s 10% favorable and 82% unfavorable score.
But, as noted, Trump lost some favorability among independents. In March, indie voters gave Trump a 29% favorable score, down five percentage points from 34% a month earlier. Unfavorable reached 58%, a big gain from February’s 52%.
One possible explanation: There has been a trend toward lower average TV viewership for the State of the Union over the past 30 years, largely due to because of competition from other media. So even a good speech will be heard by fewer people.
