As President Trump marked his 200th day in office at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, CNN released a poll Monday night to check how Trump is faring at his milestone of his presidency. Not well, according to the nationwide survey, conducted by polling firm SSRS. Only 38 percent of respondents approved of Trump's job performance, including 24 percent who strongly approved, while 56 percent disapproved and 47 percent strongly disapproved. Only 59 percent of Republicans approve of Trump's performance, the poll found, a sharp drop from 73 percent in February.
At 200 days, 59 percent of respondents said they consider Trump's presidency a failure, versus 36 percent who see it as a success, and 62 percent said Trump's actions and statements since inauguration have made them less confident in his presidential abilities. The pollsters asked about a range of issues, and Trump did not get majority approval on any of them; a 48 percent to 47 percent plurality of respondents approved of his handling of national security, and 45 percent approved of his handling of the economy, versus 47 who disapproved, but a majority disapproved of Trump on health care, immigration, foreign affairs, helping the middle class, and taxes.
Only 30 percent of respondents said they admire Trump, 34 percent said they are proud to have him as president, and 55 percent said he has lowered the stature of the presidency. Regarding Trump's Twitter use, 71 percent agreed it's an effective way for him to reach his supporters, but 70 percent said Trump tweets too often in response to TV news, 71 percent said it was a risky way to communicate, and 63 percent said his tweets turn out to be misleading too often. Overall, only 36 percent of respondents found Trump honest and trustworthy, versus 60 percent who say he isn't, and 24 percent said they trust most or all of what they hear in official communications from the Trump White House, versus 30 percent who say they believe none of it. On Monday, CNN's Jake Tapper took a stab at explaining why Trump has problems in his honesty numbers.
SRSS conducted the CNN poll Aug. 3-6, contacting 1,018 adults by landline and cellphone, and the margin of sampling error is ±3.6 percentage points.