A new coronavirus survey conducted in late August reveals Donald Trump's approval ratings on the pandemic to be damn near disqualifying for anyone seeking reelection to the highest office in the land.
In the nationwide poll of more than 21,000 adults fielded by a consortium of colleges—including Northeastern University, Harvard University, Rutgers University, and Northwestern University—Trump didn't clear 37% approval on the coronavirus in any single battleground state and he averaged about 33% across 13 of those states.
Here's Trump's approval rating in 13 swing states, according to "The COVID-19 Consortium for Understanding the Public’s Policy Preferences Across States" survey:
- Arizona: 31%
- Florida: 29%
- Georgia: 35%
- Iowa: 34%
- Michigan: 32%
- Minnesota: 35%
- North Carolina: 34%
- New Hampshire: 33%
- Nevada: 32%
- Ohio: 36%
- Pennsylvania: 37%
- Texas: 30%
- Wisconsin: 29%
These are absolutely devastating numbers on one of the most defining issues of the 2020 election cycle.
A separate national tracking poll released Tuesday by NBC News/SurveyMonkey found 52% of Americans don't trust what Trump has said about a coronavirus vaccine, while just 26% do trust his vaccine musings.
Naturally, that lack of trust has led to lower levels of people willing to take a government-approved vaccine under a Trump administration, with just 39% of Americans now saying they would get a U.S. government-approved vaccine, down from 44% a little over a month ago. Twenty-three percent said they definitively would not take a government-approved vaccine. And the number of people who are uncertain about what they would do has grown over the last month from 32% to 36%. That's exactly why having a transparent approval process is so critical to making any potential vaccine effective.