US: Poll shows Trump's job approval slips amid pandemic

By Vakkas Dogantekin

ANKARA (AA) - U.S. President Donald Trump's job approval rating took a six-point dive in April amid federal efforts to combat the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the country’s health and economy.

A new Gallup survey released Thursday found that 43% of American adults approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president, while 54% say they disapprove, six points lower than its previous poll results on March 24.

The Gallup survey was conducted from April 1 to April 14 among a population of 1,017 American adults. It has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

Trump's approval rating was floating high at the 49% range in late January and early February, around the time of the Senate impeachment trial that eventually acquitted him.

As expected, the survey found that his approval has further declined among Democrats and independents. Just 7% of Democrats and 39% of independents approve of Trump's job performance, a six-point decrease from Democrats and four-point drop from independents since mid-March.

Trump, nevertheless, still enjoys a 93% approval from his fellow Republicans.

Trump, accused by his Democratic opponents and mainstream American media of downplaying the severity of COVID-19 and trying to reopen the economy sooner than is safe, has been defending his administration's response measures from the very beginning.

Trump has accused China, the epicenter of the outbreak, and the World Health Organization (WHO) of not informing the world on time about the risks posed by the virus in late December when it first appeared.

During a White House Coronavirus Task Force meeting earlier this week, Trump said he was immediately suspending funds to the WHO over its role in "severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus."

Meanwhile, governors and health officials of several states have taken aim at his administration over medical equipment shortages and a lack of coordination.

Democrats say his targeting the WHO and China is meant to distract from his administration’s fumbled response to the crisis.

More than 5.2 million Americans filed unemployment claims last week as businesses remained mostly closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, as state-mandated lockdowns bring the number of unemployed Americans to a record 22 million in the past four weeks.

The U.S. has surged to lead the world in the number of coronavirus infections and deaths, with data from Johns Hopkins University indicating more than 639,700 cases, including nearly 31,000 deaths and roughly 52,700 recoveries.