WASHINGTON, D.C. Oct. 1, 2018 – Donald Trump receives generally negative ratings from the public across a range of personal traits and characteristics, according to a new national survey by Pew Research Center. Just 24% of Americans say Trump is even-tempered, while nearly three times as many (70%) say that description does not apply to him. Fewer than half say that Trump is a strong leader (43%), well-informed (38%), empathetic (36%) or trustworthy (34%).
Opinions are more divided over whether Trump keeps his promises or is able to get things done. And a large majority (68%) — including about half of Democrats — says Trump is “someone who stands up for what he believes in.”
The survey finds that Trump gets lower ratings than his predecessors in recent midterm years – Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton – for being trustworthy, empathetic and well-informed. However, Trump fares comparatively well in public perceptions of his ability to get things done.
Trump’s overall job rating stands at 38% and remains deeply divided by gender, race and educational attainment. While men are divided in views of Trump’s job performance (46% approve, 47% disapprove), more than twice as many women disapprove (63%) than approve (30%).
As has been the case since he became president, Trump’s job approval ratings are divided along partisan lines; Trump’s job ratings are more polarized than any president dating to Dwight Eisenhower.
Similarly, there are large partisan divides in evaluations of Trump’s personal traits and characteristics, though the gaps are not as wide in views of Trump’s temperament and whether he stands up for his beliefs.
Trump gets high ratings from Republicans – about 70% or higher – for seven of eight personal traits. But only 45% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say Trump is even-tempered, more than 20 percentage points lower than for any other trait.
Democrats and Democratic leaners also give Trump particularly low ratings for his temperament (10% say he is even-tempered), as well as for being trustworthy (7%), caring about people like them (8%) and well-informed (10%).
On the other hand, about half of Democrats (52%) say Trump stands up for what he believes in, which is about 30 points higher than the share who offer any other positive evaluation.
The survey was conducted Sept. 18-24 among 1,754 adults. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.7 percentage points for results based on the full sample.
Read the report: http://www.people-press.org/2018/10/01/trump-gets-negative-ratings-for-many-personal-traits-but-most-say-he-stands-up-for-his-beliefs/