Poll: Dems don’t accept Trump as legitimate president

A strong majority of registered voters say they don’t believe Democrats have accepted that President Trump won the election fairly or that he is a legitimate president.

According to data from the latest Harvard-Harris poll provided exclusively to The Hill, 68 percent of voters said Democrats have not accepted that Trump won fairly and is a legitimate president.

That figure includes 69 percent of Republicans, 69 percent of independents and 65 percent of Democrats.

Only four months into Trump’s presidency, Democrats have openly discussed impeachment and have accused the president of colluding with Russia to win the 2016 election, as well as trying to block investigations into the matter.

{mosads}Trump’s job approval has fallen to a new low in the poll, with 45 percent saying they approve of the job Trump is doing and 55 percent saying they disapprove. That is down from a 49 to 51 percent split in March.

Among Democrats, Trump’s job approval is at just 16 percent, while 85 percent of Republicans support him, according to the poll. Among independents, 40 percent approve of the job Trump is doing, while 60 percent disapprove.

Still, Trump is more popular than either of the major political parties — the GOP’s job approval rating is at 35 percent, while Democrats are slightly higher, at 37 percent.

The survey found the public is pessimistic about the trajectory of the country, with only 34 percent saying the nation is on the right track and 53 percent saying it’s on the wrong track.

Sixty percent of Republicans say the country is on the right track, a view held by only 18 percent of Democrats and 26 percent of independents.

There is bullishness surrounding the economy, however, with 45 percent saying it’s on the right track and 38 percent saying it’s on the wrong track.

The top priority for voters by a long shot is a desire to stimulate American jobs. Behind that, voters would like to see lawmakers pass an infrastructure bill, destroy the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), repeal and replace ObamaCare and pass a comprehensive tax reform bill.

The Harvard-Harris online survey of 2,006 registered voters was conducted May 17-20. The partisan breakdown is 36 percent Democrat, 32 percent Republican, 29 percent independent and 3 percent other. The poll uses a methodology that doesn’t produce a traditional margin of error.

The Harvard–Harris Poll is a collaboration of the Harvard Center for American Political Studies and The Harris Poll. The Hill will be working with Harvard-Harris throughout 2017. Full poll results will be posted online later this week.