PPP poll shows Trump approval rating underwater in key battlegrounds

President Trump’s approval rating is underwater in three key battleground states, according to a new poll released Wednesday.

The survey from the Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling (PPP) found that Trump’s approval rating sits at 40 percent among voters in both Colorado and Florida, the latter of which the president won in 2016 over Hillary Clinton. In both states, 55 percent of respondents said they disapprove of the job Trump is doing as president.

His approval rating is also in trouble in North Carolina, where just 45 percent of the state’s respondents told PPP they approve of Trump’s job as president, while 52 percent said they do not approve.

One often-cited source of problems for the president in the poll is his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. More than half of voters in each of those three states said Trump’s handling of the pandemic is making America “less safe.”

The poll spells trouble for the president, who he appears to be trailing his presumed 2020 Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, in most national polls and in many polls of key battleground states. In addition, fewer than one-third of Americans said they trust Trump’s statements on the coronavirus pandemic in a recent poll by NBC News.

PPP’s poll surveyed registered voters in the three states on July 31 with a margin of error of 4.2 percentage points among 556 Colorado voters, 4 percentage points among 609 Florida voters and 3.9 percentage points among 643 North Carolina voters.