A new poll shows a majority of Americans do not want President Donald Trump to run again, but GOP lawmakers are behind him and think he will be a tough-to-beat candidate in 2020, Roll Call reported.
The Economist-YouGov web-based survey released Wednesday found 56 percent of respondents do not want the president to seek reelection.
The president's negatives also included:
- 54 percent either somewhat or strongly disapprove of how he is doing his job; 39 percent approve of the job he is doing.
- 53 percent agreed he was "not honest and trustworthy"; 30 percent agreed with an assessment Trump is "honest and trustworthy."
- 56 percent doubt Trump has the right disposition to be president; 31 percent think he does.
According to the poll, Trump's negatives are at or above 40 percent on key issues like voters' views of his honesty, experience, sincerity, and ability to inspire; 37 view him as effective at this point in his presidency.
The survey's margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Nevertheless, GOP lawmakers are standing by him, Roll Call found.
"What hurts us is not the president's polling, it's our inaction," House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., told Roll Call.
"I can tell you that if we don't get things done, we will hope and pray for the president's poll numbers to be ours because ours will be a whole a lot less. . . . It's Congress' inaction that adversely affects his poll numbers."
"You ought to check out the last poll that came out in my state," Meadows added. "They want him to run again."
GOP Rep. Peter King of New York dismissed the idea that Trump will be drag on the GOP agenda.
“I saw a poll in my district … where his unfavorables had gone up considerably,” King said of his Long Island-based district. “I live in a Democratic district that [former President Barack] Obama carried twice — but the president would still beat Hillary Clinton head-to-head in the district.”
The new poll appears to back up the idea that Republicans like King are likely to stand by Trump because they view him as having the electoral support of their constituents, Roll Call reported, noting about one-third give the president high or above-average marks, Roll Call reported.
“He probably has a larger base than anyone in the country,” King said. “People seemed inclined to say, ‘He talks too much or he tweets too much.’ But when he’s up against someone else [in poll questions], they still go with him.
“He’s going to be a strong, strong candidate in 2020,” King added.
South Carolina GOP Rep. Mark Sanford said the findings about what people think about Trump’s temperament and his prospects for 2020 was a matter of the general electorate.
“The public’s sentiment is the public’s sentiment,” he said. “People decide what they decide at an individual level.”
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