No draining...

Poll: Americans don't think Trump is draining the swamp

By LOUIS NELSON

Less than a quarter of Americans surveyed in a new Monmouth University poll released Wednesday said President Donald Trump is making progress on his promise to “drain the swamp” of Washington corruption.

Thirty-two percent of those polled said Trump is actually making the "swamp” worse, while just 24 percent said he is draining it. Thirty-five percent of respondents said the president has done nothing to change Washington’s culture.

Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp” was one of his most popular campaign speech bits, a line that evolved into a call-and-response at many of his rallies. And while he has instituted some limitations on future lobbying for those working for his administration, Trump has also taken some steps that seem at odds with his anti-corruption message, including removing from public view the list of White House visitors and installing well-connected individuals within his administration, including several from Wall Street megabank Goldman Sachs.

Among those polled, 35 percent said the president has paid “a lot” of attention to the most important issues to average Americans, while 30 percent said he had paid “a little” attention and 32 percent said he had not been attentive to those issues. Sixty-two percent of participants said they wished the president would pay more attention to the issues that matter most to them, while 34 percent said Trump had paid adequate attention to their preferred issues.

On the White House-backed plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, 55 percent of respondents said they disapprove of the bill, while 32 percent said they approve of it. Forty-six percent said the measure, dubbed the American Health Care Act, was passed by the House “largely to give Republicans a political victory.” Twenty-one percent said the bill is a genuine attempt to repair the nation’s healthcare system, and 27 percent said thought it was a mix of both.

Forty-four percent of respondents said they expect healthcare costs to go up under the AHCA, if it becomes law, while 13 percent said those costs would go down and 36 percent said healthcare prices would remain roughly at their current levels.

The Monmouth University poll was conducted from May 13-17 in English among 1,002 adults nationwide, half of which were reached on landlines and half on cell phones. The poll’s margin of error was plus-or-minus 3.1 points.