Pollster Mallory Newall said on Monday that hurricanes are not likely to impact President Trump’s approval rating, given how steady it has been recently.
“What strikes me about President Trump’s approval rating is that it has been remarkably steady for months, and even in the face of different newsworthy events, a hurricane or a tropical storm being one of them, he tends to hover around the low to mid-forty percent range,” Newall, research director at Ipsos Public Affairs, told Hill.TV’s Joe Concha on “What America’s Thinking.”
“If you look at this trend over time, it’s been remarkably steady for months,” she added.
Her remarks come as the administration works to deal with the effects of Hurricane Florence, which has brought large amounts of flooding to North Carolina.
Trump has faced backlash for his administration’s response to Hurricane Maria, which caused widespread damage in Puerto Rico last year.
A new Hill.TV survey found that only 33 percent of Americans said Trump did enough in responding to the hurricane on the island.
HarrisX Poll CEO Dritan Nesho said the federal government’s response to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in the mainland U.S., versus its response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico could prove to be problematic for Trump.
“The optics of Puerto Rico are bad. It happened right after the hurricanes in Texas and in Florida, and actually when you compare the two, that’s what really looks bad,” Nesho said on Hill.TV.
“It seems like the federal government was on point for both Texas and Florida, but when it came to Puerto Rico, it was an afterthought,” he continued. “That’s what’s so problematic about this continuing conversation, and Trump coming out so strongly against the fact that the response might have been or was underwhelming.”
— Julia Manchester
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