Reckless. Thin-skinned. Not honest. Not compassionate. Not stable.

Voters see Trump as reckless, not honest

By STEVEN SHEPARD

Reckless. Thin-skinned. Not honest. Not compassionate. Not stable.

Those aren’t just the extraordinary, harsh judgments of President Donald Trump by two retiring, Republican senators on Tuesday — they are also shared by majorities of voters in a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.

Voters’ negative views of Trump’s character aren’t new. They date back to last year’s presidential campaign. And Trump’s overall approval rating in the new survey — 42 percent approve, 53 percent disapprove — is roughly unchanged over the past few months.

More than three-quarters of Republican voters, 77 percent, approve of the job Trump is doing as president. Indeed, on most of the character questions in this week’s POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, majorities of GOP voters side with Trump, even as the broader pool of voters takes a more critical view. The new survey was conducted before Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) sharply criticized Trump on Tuesday for his personal conduct as president.

Still, after a week in which Trump has sparred with the wife and family of an Army sergeant killed in action and been denounced by two high-profile senators in his own party, Trump’s negative scores on these questions raise questions about his ability to overcome voter perceptions and turn his presidency around.

Flake, in a Senate floor speech Tuesday, alluded to Trump’s “reckless, outrageous and undignified” behavior — which he said has been “excused and countenanced” by Republicans. Voters agree Trump is reckless, the poll shows, and it isn’t a new phenomenon.

"As we have seen in past polls, most voters, 56 percent, say President Trump is reckless, while 31 percent disagree," said Morning Consult co-founder and hief Research Officer Kyle Dropp. "Even among Republicans, 33 percent think this is an accurate characterization — notably higher than the percentage of Republicans that disapprove of the president overall, 20 percent."

Corker called Trump an “utterly untruthful president” in a tweet on Tuesday morning and later said in a CNN interview that Trump “has great difficulty with the truth, on many issues."

Voters mostly agree with the second-term Tennessee senator here, too. Only 35 percent call Trump honest, while 51 percent say he is not honest. Just a third say Trump is trustworthy, compared to 53 percent who say he is not trustworthy.

Trump’s feud with the family of slain Army Sgt. La David Johnson — and Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), a friend of the Johnson family — has led some to question not just Trump’s honesty, but also his compassion. Johnson’s widow, Myeshia Johnson, says a phone call last week from Trump made her “very, very upset and hurt” and “made [her] cry even worse.”

Only 33 percent of voters in the new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll say Trump is compassionate, while 54 percent say he isn’t. A 52 percent majority says Trump is thin-skinned, and 33 percent say he isn't.

The poll was conducted October 19-23 — at the height of the controversy over Trump’s phone call to Myeshia Johnson, but mostly before Johnson confirmed the account herself in a television interview on Monday.

Trump scores poorly on other measures in the poll as well. Only 39 percent of voters say Trump is a strong leader; half say he is not. Just a third say he is stable, while a 54 percent majority say he is not stable.

Half call Trump sexist; only 35 percent say he isn’t sexist. A 45 percent plurality say Trump is racist, and 40 percent say he isn’t.

Voters are split on whether Trump is knowledgeable: 42 percent say he is, but 46 percent say he isn’t.

Only 36 percent of voters say Trump’s administration is running very or somewhat well. The majority, 56 percent, say it is running very or somewhat chaotically.

The poll surveyed 1,988 registered voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Morning Consult is a nonpartisan media and technology company that provides data-driven research and insights on politics, policy and business strategy.