*Washington: *
US President Donald Trump’s approval rating has dropped sharply amidgrowing public concern about the prospects of a recession, according to aWashington Post/ABC poll published Tuesday.
The health of the US economy is one of the central themes of Trump’scampaign for reelection to a second four-year term in 2020, hammered at bythe president and his aides at every opportunity.
The Post/ABC poll, however, found that Trump’s approval rating has droppedto 38 percent, from a career-high of 44 percent in July.
Although 56 percent of those surveyed judged the state of the economy to be”excellent” or “good,” that is down sharply from a year ago when thosefavorable ratings stood at 65 percent.
Moreover, six in ten Americans surveyed said a recession was very orsomewhat likely next year.
Trump, who regularly complains about unfavorable polls, denounced thelatest poll as “the worst and most inaccurate poll of any” since his 2016election.
“One of the greatest and most powerful weapons used by the Fake and CorruptNews Media is the phony Polling Information they put out. Many of thesepolls are fixed,” he tweeted.
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Trump repeated his frequent assertion that his own campaign’s confidentialpolling shows a far healthier picture for his reelection. “Internal pollinglooks great, the best ever!” he tweeted.Advertisement
According to the Post/ABC findings, voters are deeply opposed to the way hehas handled the intensifying trade war with China. Only 35 percentapproved, against 56 percent who disapproved.
Another finding that could be cause for worry at the White House: 43percent of those surveyed said US trade and economic policies haveincreased the chance of recession next year, compared to 16 percent whothought that to the contrary they have made recession less likely.Advertisement
Sixty percent said they were worried that the trade war with China wouldincrease the price of consumer products for their families.
The Trump administration has pushed back against those fears in recentweeks. -APP/AFP
