Americans uneasy

Americans uneasy about North Korea nuclear situation

By DIAMOND NAGA SIU

Americans are “uneasy” about a possible conflict with North Korea, while many Democrats are also not confident in President Donald Trump’s capacity to handle a nuclear crisis with the country, according to a CBS News poll out Tuesday.

Responses, however, were largely split on party lines — 76 percent of Republicans said they are confident in Trump’s ability to handle the North Korea nuclear situation, while only 10 percent of Democrats and 31 percent of Independents said they are.

Regardless of party alignment, 72 percent of the 1,111 people surveyed reported unease about the possible conflict, and only 26 percent said they are “confident things will be resolved.” Similar numbers were reported for whether people think the threat can be contained: 60 percent said it can, 29 percent said military action is needed now and 7 percent think it is not a threat at all.

The nuclear threat, however, has not affected Trump’s approval rating, which remains at 36 percent, just as in the network’s June survey. And people’s favorable views of the economy are the highest since 2001, with 69 percent of people categorizing it as good, compared with 70 percent in 2001.

Trump increased his approval rating over how he handles the economy by 4 percentage points since June, though the economy is the only issue on which people increased their approval since last month: approval of Trump's handling of trade is down 7 percent, immigration is down 20 percent and health care is down 27 percent.

The CBS News poll was conducted via telephone Aug. 3-6 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.