Campaign

Poll: Trump’s approval steady despite deepening economic fears

by Julia Manchester 09/03/19 02:23 PM CDT

President Trump’s approval rating held steady in August despite growing fears of a potential economic recession and a continued trade war with China.

Forty-five percent of respondents said they approved of Trump’s job in office, unchanged since the prior month, according to the latest Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll survey released exclusively to The Hill.

{mosads}The survey comes as fears of a recession grow, in part over continued trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.

“President Trump has the strong support of the American public when it comes to standing up to China,” Mark Penn, co-director of the Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll survey, said.

“They realize that the tariffs may have negative impacts on jobs and prices, but they believe the fight here is the right one. Americans are highly suspicious of the Chinese government and view their leader as little more than a dictator,” he continued.

There have been a number of signs pointing to a potential economic downturn amid the trade war.

The Institute for Supply Management announced on Tuesday that its manufacturing index decreased to 49.1 in August from 51.2 in July, falling below 50 and therefore indicating a contraction.

An economic slowdown could hinder Trump’s reelection chances, given his constant praise of the performance of the economy under his administration.

U.S. stocks plummeted on Tuesday morning, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down more than 1 percent, after Trump vowed in a tweet to “get much tougher” on China.

Trump slapped a 15 percent tariff on some $112 billion worth of Chinese imports on Sunday, following through on an earlier threat.

The Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll surveyed 2,531 registered voters from Aug. 26 to 28. The poll is a collaboration of the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University and The Harris Poll. The Hill will be working with Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll throughout 2019.

Full poll results will be posted online later this week. The Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll survey is an online sample drawn from the Harris Panel and weighted to reflect known demographics. As a representative online sample, it does not report a probability confidence interval.