Fox News Poll: Voters say Trump succeeded on economy, but failed to unify US

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By a 20-point margin, voters say the Trump administration has mostly succeeded at stimulating the economy: 51 percent think that and 31 percent believe he has mostly failed.

In addition, by a 19-point margin, more think the administration has mostly succeeded at creating jobs (50 percent succeeded, 31 percent failed).

These are two of nine national priorities the latest Fox News Poll asks voters about.  The findings indicate success in some areas, while others need improvement -- including security.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE POLL RESULTS

The poll, released Friday, also finds more voters say they are better off than they were four years ago (35 percent) than worse off (24 percent).  The largest number, however, feels their situation is about the same (40 percent).  Nearly three times as many Republicans (58 percent) as Democrats (19 percent) say they are better off today.

The president’s worst rating is on unifying the country: 59 percent say Trump has mostly failed (19 percent mostly succeeded).  Almost as many think he has mostly failed at improving race relations (55 percent), and many say the same about improving health care (50 percent failed).

Voters are less than wowed with the job Trump has done on his “drain the swamp in Washington” promise -- 48 percent call that a failure (21 percent succeeded).

Views are more mixed on security issues.  On making the country safer, voters say the administration has mostly failed by 7 points (38 succeeded, 45 failed).

And despite the expansion of the U.S.-Mexico border wall, voters divide over whether Trump has been effective on his signature issue of border security (40 succeeded, 42 failed).

On handling the Islamic extremist group ISIS, voters split:  39 percent mostly succeeded vs. 38 percent mostly failed.

For comparison, voters believed the Obama administration had mostly failed on many of these same priorities as his term started to wind down. In January 2016, majorities gave failing grades for stimulating the economy (51 percent mostly failed), improving health care (53 percent), making the country safer (58 percent), improving race relations (59 percent), and handling ISIS (65 percent).

In general, 47 percent of voters approve of Trump’s job performance and 52 percent disapprove.  That is a tad better than last month when it was 45-54 percent (January 2020).  The president’s best rating continues to be 48 percent approve vs. 47 percent disapprove in February 2017, soon after his inauguration.  His record low was 38 percent approval in October 2017.

Fully 89 percent of Republicans are happy with Trump’s performance.

And, his job approval stands at a record high of 14 percent among Democrats.

Overall, a majority of voters approve of how Trump’s handling the economy (54 approve, 42 disapprove) -- yet a majority disapproves on health care (38 approve, 53 disapprove).

Poll Pourri

-- Most voters are at least somewhat confident the federal government is prepared to deal with the coronavirus (74 percent).  A smaller majority feels confident U.S. intelligence agencies are prepared to deal with the Russian government trying to interfere in the next presidential election (68 percent).

-- On the Senate impeachment trial, voters approve of Trump’s acquittal (50-44 percent).

-- Views split on Trump’s recent presidential pardons.  Forty-nine percent think they were an abuse of pardon power, while 43 percent call them “fairly typical.”  In February 2001, 55 percent said pardons by former President Clinton were an abuse of power and 32 percent said typical.

-- Voters remain unhappy with lawmakers in Washington:  26 percent approve of the job Congress is doing and 65 percent disapprove.

-- Nearly half of voters, 49 percent, disapprove of Trump’s tweeting.  That’s more than double the 19 percent who approve.  Another 28 percent “wish he’d be more cautious.”

Conducted February 23-26, 2020 under the joint direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company (R), this Fox News Poll includes interviews with 1,000 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide who spoke with live interviewers on both landlines and cellphones.  The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points for all registered voters.