President Donald Trump is continuing to polarize Pennsylvanians according to the latest Muhlenberg College/Morning Call poll.
Trump’s approval rating stands at 39%, which is higher than both of Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senators. Senator Bob Casey has a 34% approval rating, while Senator Pat Toomey stands at 36%. Trump has a higher disapproval rating than both Casey and Toomey though, with 54% disapproving of Trump.
The majority of respondents felt that Trump is not handling his job. 52% said that Trump was doing a fair or poor job handling his job, while 42% said he was doing an excellent or good job.
Only 30% of Pennsylvanians believe Trump is honest and trustworthy, but 40% believe that he keeps his promises.
The majority, 56%, of respondents said that Trump is doing more to divide the country as President.
Pennsylvanians are leaning towards a congressional investigation into any ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. 54% said that congress should investigate any ties, while 38% said they should not.
Muhlenberg College/Morning Call’s poll was a survey of 406 registered voters conducted by phone calls to both cell phones and land lines. The margin of error is plus or minus 6%.
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2 Responses
“100 Days” came and went with Napoleon Bonaparte’s return from exile in Elba in 1815. But since then it has become a noxious meme and a generally useless metric. In Trump’s case, to wait until Labor Day or even a year after the eletion might make more sense in better assessing how weill he is doing. Three months or so is pretty useless, unless you have it in for Trump.
And if such short-term metrics are indeed important, consider that Trump gets positive ratings (excellent, good, and fair) in handling the economy (74% versus “poor” at 30%), national security (60% versus “poor” at 36%), and immigration (47% versus “poor” at 46%). His low grades on environmental protection and health care could also reflect discontent on the Republican side that he has not done enough to correct Obama-era abuses. Of course, we don’t know as this survey is rather slapdash and does not defiine categories very precisely.
This vaguenss of terms is seen in questions 13 and following. While we probably can know what traits identify a strong leader (51%), “keeps his promises” (Q14) is vague. Is that people don’t believe he does? Or that some people don’t believe he’s kept them yet, or has to deliver on them? Also, keep in mind that some respondents (Q18) believe the country is divided because of the Democrat refusal to view Trump as legitimate.
Another major fault of the survey is that it did not break down the answers geographically. Yes, 47% were Democrats and 37% were Republicans. But we don’t know how much Philadelphia and Pittsburgh skewed the state results. There have been a number of news reports that Trump’s following in “flyover” Pennsylvania has increased, and many who did not vote for him now wish they had.
All in all, not too good a poll. Vague, dumbed-down questions will get you vague, dumbed down answers, or at the best only a partial read on what the electorate may actually think about issues at present. And they are certainly thinking about a lot more issues than those contained in this survey. If you doubt it, just come to those areas outside the state’s two urban regions. You’ll find a lot to supplement this poll.
I want to know more about the 10% of people who think Trump keeps his promises but that he is a dishonest person.