President Donald Trump, disembarks Air Force One upon arrival at Morristown Municipal Airport, in Morristown, N.J., on July 19, 2019. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Poll: 54 Percent of Americans in the South Approve of President Trump

A new poll has found that 54 percent of Americans in the south approve the way President Donald Trump is handling his job as the country’s commander-in-chief.

According to the recent NBC News|SurveyMonkey online poll (pdf), conducted between July 2 and 16, 38 percent of Americans in the south “strongly approve” of Trump’s job as president, while 16 percent expressed that they “somewhat approve” his handling of the job. This is up from a total approval of 52 percent based on the same poll conducted in September last year.

Meanwhile, 45 percent expressed that they “somewhat disapprove” or “strongly disapprove” Trump’s job as president.

According to NBC News, much of the poll was conducted prior to Trump writing a series of Twitter posts between July 14 and 16 which ignited outrage, especially among Democrats. Most notably, Trump called on “‘progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen” to “go back” to their countries to help fix the “totally broken and crime-infested places” before returning to the United States to “show us how it is done.”

So interesting to see “Progressive” Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly…… — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2019

….and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how…. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2019

….it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2019

The posts eventually sparked a public feud between the president and four far-left members of the Democratic party—Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.). Apart from Omar, who was born in Somalia, the other three lawmakers were born in the United States.

The polling data also found that a majority of respondents expressed disapproval of the way Congress was handling its job.

Seventy-one percent of Americans said they “somewhat disapprove” or “strongly disapprove” Congress’s handling of its job, while only 28 percent said they “somewhat approve” or “strongly approve.”

This poll comes after a recent Reuters-Ipsos public opinion poll found that Trump’s net approval among members of the Republican Party rose by 5 percentage points to 72 percent, compared with a similar poll that ran last week.

The poll also found that the president lost support with Democrats and independents since the tweetstorm on July 14.

About 3 out of 10 independents said they approved of Trump, down from 4 out of 10 a week ago. His net approval—the percentage who approve minus the percentage who disapprove—fell by 2 points among Democrats in the poll.

Overall, Trump’s approval remained consistent where 41 percent of Americans approve of his job performance, while 55 percent disapprove.

Meanwhile, a survey conducted by YouGov (pdf) found that 88 percent of Republican respondents supported Trump’s tweets that suggested Democrats who dislike America should leave.

Of the GOP respondents, 48 percent said the tweets were “great,” another 16 percent said they were “good,” and 24 percent said they were “okay.”

The remaining 13 percent said they were “bad” or “terrible.”

Only a few Democrats supported the tweets, with 71 percent choosing the “terrible” description and another 16 percent saying they were “bad.” Among independents, 17 percent said they were “great,” 9 percent said they were “good,” 22 percent said they were “okay,” 19 percent said they were “bad,” and 32 percent said they were “terrible.”

Overall, 21 percent of respondents said they were “great,” while 37 percent said they were “terrible.”

The NBC News|SurveyMonkey Southern regional poll was conducted with people living in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, or Virginia. Among the sample were 4,869 adults ages 18 and over, including 4,203 registered voters. The error estimate is plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.

Trump Thanks Progressive Dems for Uptick in Poll

On July 17, Trump thanked several “progressive” Democratic congresswomen who he called out in a series of Twitter posts after a latest Rasmussen poll showed a four-point jump in his approval ratings.

“New Poll: The Rasmussen Poll, one of the most accurate in predicting the 2016 Election, has just announced that ‘Trump’ numbers have recently gone up by four points, to 50%,” Trump wrote in a Twitter post on July 17. “Thank you to the vicious young Socialist Congresswomen. America will never buy your act!”

New Poll: The Rasmussen Poll, one of the most accurate in predicting the 2016 Election, has just announced that “Trump” numbers have recently gone up by four points, to 50%. Thank you to the vicious young Socialist Congresswomen. America will never buy your act! #MAGA2020 — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 17, 2019

According to the Rasmussen Poll, which Trump often cites, the president’s approval went up from 46 percent on July 15 to 50 percent on July 17, days after he accused four far-left members of the Democratic party of displaying anti-semitic and anti-American rhetoric.

Zachary Stieber and Reuters contributed to this report.