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- Only 35% of respondents said they approved of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new poll released by ABC News/Ipsos.
- The results come on the heels of a bombshell report that said Trump admitted to deliberately downplaying the coronavirus.
- “I wanted to always play it down,” Trump said in an interview with journalist Bob Woodward in March.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
About a third of respondents in a new survey said they approved of President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus, a figure that’s remained steady for months as the disease continues to spread.
Sixty-five percent of survey respondents said they disapproved of the way the presidents has responded to the pandemic while 35% approved, according to a new poll released by ABC News/Ipsos.
Among party lines, the divide is even greater: about 80% of Republicans surveyed indicated they approved of Trump’s response to the pandemic, while only 5% of Democrats said the same.
The results of the latest poll come amid a controversial report of Trump deliberately downplaying the coronavirus pandemic.
“I wanted to always play it down,” Trump reportedly said in an interview with journalist Bob Woodward in March.
“I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic,” he added, revealing that he knew more about the dangers the coronavirus posed than he let on.
As Business Insider’s Jake Lahut previously reported, Trump has consistently downplayed the pandemic since early this year. The president’s past statements and those of his senior officials have demonstrated a habit of understating the extent of the virus when experts kept warning of its mounting danger.
Still, Woodward’s bombshell reveal appeared not to impact Trump’s support levels, according to an analysis of results by ABC News.
The president’s approval rating for his handling of the pandemic has hovered around the mid-30s mark since July, when it had hit an all-time low of 33%, a stark contrast to the more than half (55%), of respondents who said they approved of the US response to the coronavirus in March.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
More than 6.4 million people in the United States have been infected with the coronavirus, according to the latest data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Of that, more than 193,000 people have died.
There were 533 people who participated in the latest poll from ABC News/Ipsos, which had a margin of error of 4.7 points.
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