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President Donald Trump begins his second term in the White House with an approval rating 10 percentage points higher than when he first took office, while the Democratic Party holds its highest unfavorable rating since 2008, according to a Quinnipiac University poll.
The survey found that 46 percent of voters approve of Trump’s job performance, while 43 percent disapprove and 11 percent did not express an opinion.
In January 2017, Quinnipiac polling showed 36 percent approval of Trump’s performance, with 44 percent disapproving and 19 percent withholding an opinion.
The poll also indicates record-setting opinions of the Democratic and Republican parties since Quinnipiac began tracking these views in November 2008.
Thirty-one percent of voters have a favorable opinion of the Democratic Party, while 57 percent view it unfavorably, marking the highest unfavorable rating for the party in the poll’s history.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party’s favorability rating stands at 43 percent, its highest since Quinnipiac began asking the question, with 45 percent of voters holding an unfavorable view.
The results highlight a stark partisan divide over Trump’s job performance, with 86 percent of Republicans approving and 86 percent of Democrats disapproving. Among independents, 41 percent approve, while 46 percent disapprove.
A majority of voters, 54 percent, say they feel optimistic about the next four years under Trump’s leadership, while 42 percent express pessimism, the poll finds.
Additionally, 60 percent of voters support deploying U.S. troops to the southern border for security enforcement, while 36 percent oppose the move. Among independents, 57 percent approve, compared to 40 percent who disapprove.
“The huge deployment of boots on the ground is not to a dicey, far away war theater, but to the American border. And a majority of voters are just fine with that,” Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy said.
The economy remains the top issue among Americans in the poll.
“Given a list of nine issues and asked which is the most urgent one facing the country today, the economy (24 percent) tops the list, followed by preserving democracy in the United States (20 percent) and immigration (18 percent). No other issue reached double digits,” the study found.
