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According to a new Reuters poll, former vice president Joe Biden now leads Donald Trump by 13 points. The national approval poll was conducted over the last six days and shows that Trump has fallen by some 13 points in national approval since March. Notably, March marked the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US.
Since the beginning of widespread protests in the US over police brutality, Trump has continued to tumble in the polls. Protests captured on cellphone cameras have shown massive unrest over US police’s use of extreme force. Evidence of brutality captured on iPhones, Samsung Galaxy S20 phones and the like have spurred a huge outcry among the public.
In a word, this news is disastrous for the president. This puts his approval rating in the same range as one-term presidents like Jimmy Carter and George HW Bush at this point in their terms. The 13-point margin is statistically significant for the polling, as well. This means that enough people disapprove of the president’s current job that minor errors in polling wouldn’t account for the difference.
Some two-thirds of those polled said they were sympathetic to recent “Black Lives Matter” protests.This could explain part of Trump’s recent tumble in approval ratings. His response to the protests has been incredibly harsh, even by his own standards. Two weeks ago, he threatened to use the American military to quell the largely peaceful protests. This move drew swift criticism from several top military officials.
Another black eye for the president’s reputation was a photo op in front of St. John’s Church in Washington DC. After the Secret Service used tear gas and extreme force to clear peaceful protesters from Lafayette Park, the president posed with a bible in front of the historic church. Many across the political spectrum derided Trump for his perceived hypocrisy in the stunt.
There was a slight glimmer of hope in the recent poll. Respondents felt as though the President would be better for the economy than Joe Biden. This is in line with Trump’s own focus: he’s heralded himself as an economy-first president. However, recent events have pulled the national conversation far from discussions of economics.
The novel coronavirus pandemic has left millions of American out of work. Likewise, widespread protests have revealed deep divisions in the experiences between black Americans and their white counterparts. Trump may have misread the political moment, and could soon find himself out of the White House due to it.
