KEY POINTS A Hill/HarrisX poll finds 54% of registered voters disapprove of the job Trump is doing as president

This latest result is a 3% drop in Trump's approval rating from the previous survey taken Feb. 1 to 2

COVID-19 "represents a real threat to the Trump administration and the Trump presidency"

The bungled response by his administration during the early days of the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic likely helped to further boost the already high disapproval rating president Donald Trump has among voters.

A new Hill/HarrisX poll conducted from March 8 to 9 finds 54% of registered voters disapprove of the job Trump is doing as president compared to 46% that say otherwise. This latest result is a 3% drop in Trump's approval rating from the previous survey taken Feb. 1 to 2. This poll revealed a 51% disapproval and a 49% approval rating. The decrease is within the poll's margin of error.

Hill/HarrisX analysts said one possible reason for the drop might be the COVID-19 epidemic and the widely-perceived bungling of the Trump administration's initial response to it in the form of faulty test kits and far too restrictive test guidelines that excluded testing by private laboratories.

"When it comes to these sort of exogenous external forces like a natural disaster or a terrorist attack, how an administration responds is critically important," said Daniel Cox, research fellow in polling and public opinion for the American Enterprise Institute.

Cox isn't downplaying the effect COVID-19 will have on Trump's chances for reelection.

"This represents a real threat to the Trump administration and the Trump presidency and we'll see how this plays out in the next six months," according to Cox. "But I think that almost more than anything else will be critical, that and the economic repercussions."

Criticism of the Trump administration's handling of the COVID-19 response has been relentless and widely covered by media on both sides of the political aisle. Trump is more unpopular now than when he was before he was impeached by the House of Representatives on Dec. 18, 2019.

Trump's approval rating among voters for the Dec. 13-14 period improved to 49% while 51% said they disapprove. Of the 49% that approved, 29% said they strongly approve of Trump's performance in office. Of the 51% that disapproved, 38% said they strongly disapprove of Trump.

Hill/HarrisX said this poll is a marked improvement from the previous one taken Dec. 8-9, which revealed a 46% approval rating for Trump. This poll also showed a 54% disapproval rating.

Trump's 49% approval is only 2% short of his highest-ever approval rating of 51% in August 2018, according to The Hill. It's also similar to that of a Hill/HarrisX poll released Oct. 2, which showed Trump's approval rising to 49% its highest mark this year. The October poll was taken after House Democrats launched their impeachment inquiry into Trump on Sept. 24.

Photo: AFP / Brendan Smialowski