President Donald Trump just hit his highest approval rating in The Washington Post/ABC News poll so far in his presidency, but the majority of American voters disagree with his handling of every major issue aside from the economy.
Released Sunday, the poll shows Trump’s approval at 44 percent, with 53 percent of Americans disagreeing with his performance. That is an improvement of 5 percentage points in his approval rating since April. Narrow the poll down to registered voters, and Trump’s approval stands at 47 percent, while his disapproval is at 50 percent.
Support for opening an impeachment inquiry has dropped in The Washington Post/ABC survey as well, with 37 percent of respondents saying Congress should begin the proceedings and 59 percent saying it should not. Last August, 49 percent of respondents said Congress should launch an impeachment inquiry, while 46 percent were against the start of proceedings.
Most Americans, however, say Trump has not acted in a way that is fitting and proper for a president. The survey showed that 65 percent of Americans feel Trump is acting “unpresidential,” while just 28 percent believe he is acing properly as president. That is actually an improvement from earlier Washington Post/ABC polls, which showed that split at 70 percent and 24 percent last July.
On a host of issues, including immigration, taxes, climate change and foreign policy, Trump’s approval rating for his handling of those topics was lower than his overall approval rating. The only issue polled that a majority of Americans agreed with the president’s handling was the economy, where 51 percent of respondents approved of Trump’s job.
Among registered voters, the only 2020 Democratic presidential candidate polled to beat Trump by a wide margin was former Vice President Joe Biden, who bested Trump by a 53 percent to 43 percent result. Sens. Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren polled within 2 points of Trump in a head-to-head matchup.
But the Democrats fared better when all respondents were asked for their preference, as opposed to exclusively registered voters. In that question, Sanders, Warren and Harris each bested Trump by at least 6 points. Meanwhile, Biden topped the president by 14 points and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg led Trump by 4 points.
Among Democrats polled, Biden was the first choice of 30 percent of respondents. Sanders came in second at 19 percent, followed by Harris at 13 percent and Warren at 12 percent. Asked which Democrat stands the best chance against Trump, 45 percent chose Biden while 18 percent selected Sanders.
The Washington Post-ABC News poll was conducted over telephone from June 28 until July 1. Among all 1,008 respondents, the poll had a margin of error of +/-3.5 percentage points. On questions where less than the entire sample was asked, the margin of error ranged from +/-4 percentage points to +/-5.5 percentage points.
