April 05, 2017
As far as most New Jersey residents go, President Donald Trump’s performance ranges mostly from "meh" to "oof," according to the Stockton University Poll.
OK, so the poll is actually expressed in percentages, but how better to express a 56 percent unfavorable rating, including 46 percent of poll respondents viewing Trump, a former New Jersey business executive, as very unfavorable?
Just 35 percent of Jersey adults have a very favorable or somewhat favorable view of the new president.
Only 26 percent think he is doing a good or excellent job as president.
A whopping 47 percent think he is doing poorly and another 24 percent say he is doing just fair.
Emphasizing just how polarizing Trump is, only eight percent of those polled said they were unsure of how to rate Trump.
Fifty-four percent of those polled think the United States is on the wrong track, 37 percent think the country is going in the right direction and 14 percent said they are unsure.
But Trump's GOP base in New Jersey still supports him. Two-thirds of Republicans say the country is headed in the right direction.
A huge 77 percent of Republicans have a favorable impression of Trump, and 65 percent say he is doing either a good or excellent job.
Democrats and independents generally gave Trump negative ratings. Democrat Hillary Clinton handily won New Jersey in the November election, by a margin of 56-41 percent.
“People tend to give a new president the benefit of the doubt when he first takes office,” said Sharon Schulman, executive director of the Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University. “These are unusually low numbers of support.”
The poll also showed:
• Strong disapproval across party lines for how Congress has addressed Obamacare
• The majority of New Jerseyans oppose Trump’s travel ban
• A strong majority (67 percent) have concerns about Russian meddling in the election (though not so much with Republicans)
• More than 60 percent say Congress must find a way to compromise and work across party divisions.
The poll of 704 adult New Jersey residents was conducted by the polling institute of the Hughes Center for Public Policy from March 22-29, 2017.
