Two-Thirds of voters: Trump “poor” on race relations; Half give him an “F” for Charlottesville

Small plurality of voters says Neo-Nazis and white nationalists should not be given permits to march; Strong majority says Confederate statues  and memorials should stay up

By two-to-one, voters say country headed in wrong direction; Majority are pessimistic about country’s future; Republicans in Congress are lower than Trump

President Donald Trump — with a negative 29-to-66 percent favorability rating — is viewed more unfavorably by New Yorkers than at any time since taking the oath of office and has his worst favorability rating since October 2016.

His job performance rating — with more than three-quarters of New Yorkers giving him a negative rating and 59 percent saying he’s doing a “poor” job — is also at its lowest level of the Trump presidency, according to a new Siena College Poll of New York state registered voters released this week.

When it comes to making race relations better, 85 percent give Trump a negative grade, including 68 percent who give him a “poor” grade, and 50 percent of voters give the President an “F” for his handling of the aftermath of events in Charlottesville.

By a 49-to-45 percent margin, New Yorkers say groups including self-identified white nationalists and neo-Nazis should not be able to obtain permits to rally. Meanwhile, a strong majority of voters, 59-to-35 percent, say Confederate statues or memorials should stay up.

Sixty-two percent think the country is headed in the wrong direction, compared to only 27 percent who say the country is on the right track, which is down from 33-to-58 percent in July.

“New Yorkers are viewing the Queens-born President more negatively than they have any time since he took office. While he continues to be viewed unfavorably by more than 80 percent of Democrats, Trump’s favorability rating with Republicans — 61-to-33 percent — while still strongly positive, is down by a net 20 points since July when he had a 71-to-23 percent favorability rate with Republicans,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg.

“At negative 22-to-77 percent, Trump’s job performance rating is also the lowest it’s been since becoming president. While nine in ten Democrats and three-quarters of independents give Trump a negative job performance rating, now a small majority of 52 percent of Republicans give the President a thumbs down,” Greenberg said. “Between 72 and 81 percent of voters from every region [of New York state] give Trump a negative job performance rating.”

“New Yorkers give Trump his ‘least bad’ rating on keeping Americans safe from terrorism, with 34 percent giving him a positive rating and 63 percent a negative rating. On three issues — improving health care, working with Congress and making our nation’s race relations better — at least 82 percent of voters, and at least 65 percent of Republicans, give Trump negative grades,” Greenberg said.

“In addition to 85 percent giving Trump a negative performance on improving race relations, 50 percent give the president an “F” for his handling of the aftermath of Charlottesville, with only 25 percent giving him an “A” or “B,” Greenberg said. “In fact his GPA on Charlottesville is 1.20, barely a “D+.”

NY’ers closely divided on allowing Neo-Nazis to march; Strongly support keeping Confederate statues

“There is little consensus among New York voters on whether self-identified white nationalists and neo-Nazis should be allowed to march in this country. A majority of Democrats says no. A majority of Republicans and a plurality of independents say yes. A small majority of downstaters says no; a plurality of upstaters says yes. Small majorities of liberals and moderates say no, while a small majority of conservatives say yes. White voters say no by four points and black voters say no by 14 points. Women, no; men, yes,” Greenberg said.

“While a small majority of Democrats believes Confederate statues or memorials should be removed, 84 percent of Republicans and 66 percent of independents say they should stay up,” Greenberg said. “A small majority of New York City voters, a larger majority of downstate suburbanites and a huge majority of upstaters say these statues and memorials should remain. While black voters say take them down by a relatively narrow 52-40 percent, white and Latino voters say better than two-to-one to keep them up.”

Job performance for Dems in Congress virtually equals Trump’s; Republicans rating about as low as possible

“New York voters – with more than twice as many Democrats as Republicans – give the President and Democrats in Congress virtually even job performance ratings. The Dems have a negative job performance rating of 21-to-78 percent, virtually unchanged from May,” Greenberg said. “Republicans in Congress have an incredibly negative job performance rating with only 11 percent of New Yorkers ranking them positively and 86 percent negatively, down from negative 17-to-81 percent in May. Even 69 percent of Republicans join with 92 percent of Democrats and independents in negatively rating Congressional Republicans.”

Voters strongly say U.S. headed in wrong direction; Majority pessimistic about future of country

By a 62-to-27 percent margin — up from 58-to-33 percent in July — New Yorkers say the country is headed in the wrong direction, not on the right track. While 44 percent are optimistic about the future of the country over the next few years, 54 percent are pessimistic. In May, optimists and pessimists were tied at 49 percent.

“At least 60 percent of voters from every region of the state think the country is headed in the wrong direction, as do more than three-quarters of Democrats and a strong majority of independents,” Greenberg said. “By a 46-to-40 percent margin, a plurality of Republicans still thinks the country is on the right track, although that is down significantly from July when 62 percent of Republicans thought the country was on the right track, and 31 percent said it was not. This is the worst showing New Yorkers have given on the direction of the country in nearly four years.

“Two-thirds of Democrats are pessimistic about the country’s future, while nearly two-thirds of Republicans are optimistic, as are a small majority of independents. While downstate suburbanites are evenly divided, a majority of upstaters and New York City voters are pessimistic,” Greenberg said.

The Siena College Poll was conducted from August 26-30, 2017 by telephone calls conducted in English to 771 New York State registered voters. Respondent sampling was initiated by asking for the youngest male in the household. It has an overall margin of error of 4.2 percentage points.