Trump Touts Gallup Poll Showing ‘Highest Rating Ever’ For Confidence in Government’s Coronavirus Handling … From Early February
Alex Wong/Getty Images
President Donald Trump claimed Gallup gave him “the highest rating ever” for the way he’s been handling the coronavirus, Thursday, despite the fact that the results were from a survey conducted in early Februrary.
“Gallup just gave us the highest rating ever for the way we are handling the CoronaVirus situation,” posted Trump in Twitter. “The April 2009-10 Swine Flu, where nearly 13,000 people died in the U.S., was poorly handled. Ask MSDNC & lightweight Washington failure @RonaldKlain, who the President was then?”
Gallup just gave us the highest rating ever for the way we are handling the CoronaVirus situation. The April 2009-10 Swine Flu, where nearly 13,000 people died in the U.S., was poorly handled. Ask MSDNC & lightweight Washington failure @RonaldKlain, who the President was then?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2020
The Gallup poll President Trump appeared to be referencing was published two weeks ago and based on results from early February.
It appears he is referring to a Gallup poll conducted Feb. 3-16 and released Feb. 20. https://t.co/gk3uPPmo8h https://t.co/oNaG1I4CL0
— Ben Pershing (@benpershing) March 5, 2020
In the February poll, 77 percent of those surveyed felt very of somewhat confident in the United States government’s ability to handle the coronavirus.
This was up from the Zika virus in 2017 (64 percent), the Ebola virus in 2014 (58 percent), Swine flu in 2009 (67 percent), and Bird flu in 2005 (54 percent).
These results, however, are from early February “just days after the Trump administration announced it would suspend entry of foreign nationals into the U.S. among those who had traveled to China in the prior two weeks,” as noted by Gallup.
No American had died from the coronavirus within the United States’ borders at that time, and since then, the coronavirus has spread to New York City, been confirmed in at least seventeen states, prompted a state of emergency in California, and killed eleven people– 10 in the state of Washington and 1 in California.
A more recent poll from this month shows the majority of Americans are concerned about how the coronavirus will affect the United States and “strongly disapprove of the administration’s response.”
“By a 20-point margin, voters say his administration’s handling of the virus makes them less likely to vote for him this fall,” Public Policy Polling reported. “Independents say they’re less likely to vote for Trump by 32 points because of how he’s dealt with this issue.”
“Only 37% of voters agree with Trump’s assessment that his administration is doing a ‘great job’ dealing with the coronavirus, while 53% disagree,” the poll revealed, while many Americans are also concerned about whether a coronavirus vaccine will be affordable.
