Americans Still Think Trump Is Best for Economy and Jobs

The U.S. economy is likely in the deepest slump since the Great Depression but Americans still think President Donald Trump is better on economic issues than Democrat rival Joe Biden.

The Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll reveals that voters picked President Trump over Biden when it comes to who would be best at cutting unemployment and getting Americans back to work, by 48 percent to 35 percent.

On handling the overall econonmy, Trump bests Biden by 48 percent to 37 percent.

Trump’s continued strength on economic issues is notable because Americans have taken a much grimmer view of the economy as unemployment has shot up to post-World War II records and the coronavirus shutdowns have thrown the economy into contraction. Just five percent of Americans rate the economy as “excellent,” down from 18 percent at the end of 2019.  The share rating the economy as “good” has fallen to 17 percent from 35 percent in December.

The share rating the economy as “poor” has shot up to 45 percent from 14 percent in December. Those who rate the economy as “only fair” have remained almost steady at around 30 percent.

Trumps’ overall job approval rating stood at 45 percent in the June, down 1 percentage point from April. It is actually up a percentage point since the December poll. His strongly approve rating fell 3 points since December to 31 percent, while somewhat approve rose 3 points to 14 percent. The strongly disapprove rating went up 3 points from December to 47 percent.

Forty percent of Americans say they have positive feelings about Trump, while 37 percent say they have positive feelings about Biden. Trump’s “very positive” rating is at 29 percent, compared with just 17 percent for Biden.  In a dramatic illustration of just divided Americans are on political matters, Trump also far outpaces Biden on the “very negative” score, 45 percent to 26 percent.

In the head-to-head poll asking who would voters cast a ballot for if the election were held today, Biden beats Trump by 49 percent to 42 percent. That is almost unchanged from the poll taken last July and each poll in between.