Washington: US President Donald Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has further disappointed the American public public, recording a new low in a recent poll, with an overwhelming majority of those surveyed believing the country is headed in the wrong direction.
Trump’s approval rating for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic sank to 32 per cent, a record low, Xinhua news agency reported citing the poll co-conducted by the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Chicago.
Furthermore, a striking majority of 80 per cent said the country “is heading in the wrong direction”, according to the poll, the highest since Trump’s presidency, casting a shadow over his re-election campaign.
On the economic front, just 38 per cent said the national economy is in good shape, compared with 67 per cent in January, according to the poll, another hit to the President’s hopes of playing the economy card as an election advantage.
Meanwhile, the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll on July 19 revealed that Trump was 15 points behind presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the run-up to November’s election, it was reported.
The poll which revealed a close margin, 54 per cent for Biden and 44 per cent for Trump, was the fifth consecutive high-quality national poll that showed the former Vice President ahead of Trump by 10 points or more.
Of the nine such polls conducted since the second half of June, Biden has led Trump by double digits in seven of them.
Meanwhile, a Quinnipiac University poll released earlier this month, 45 per cent of registered voters had a favorable opinion of Biden, and 43 per cent viewed him unfavourably.
That was up slightly from 42 per cent favorable, 46 per cent unfavourable in June.
Similarly, 44 per cent of voters surveyed by an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll last week said they had a positive opinion of Biden, while 46 per cent viewed him negatively.
