Perceptions of President Donald Trump’s performance also break sharply along partisan lines. | Morris MacMatzen/Getty Images Trump's first-year report card: Voters say he's no genius More than one-third give the president's performance a failing grade.

Donald Trump’s quarterly report card is in — and if he were back in school, he’d find himself on academic probation.

More voters give Trump a failing grade for his first year as president than think he deserves an “A” or “B,” according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, conducted earlier this month. Trump’s best marks come on the economy, jobs and fighting terrorism. But he gets poor marks for his handling of health care, the national debt and foreign relations.


Overall, 35 percent would give him an “F” — slightly more than the 34 percent of voters who would give Trump an “A” or “B” grade for his first year. The remaining voters give him a “C” (14 percent) or a barely passing “D” (11 percent), and 5 percent have no opinion.

The gender gap that marked his election remains wide. Men are more positive toward Trump’s performance thus far: 38 percent give him an “A” or “B,” while 42 percent give him a “D” or “F.” Among female voters, fewer than one-third, 31 percent, give Trump an “A” or “B,” while half, 50 percent, think he should get a “D” or “F.”

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Perceptions of Trump’s performance also break sharply along partisan lines. More than 7 in 10 Republicans, 72 percent, would give Trump an “A” or “B,” while just 10 percent of Republicans would give Trump a “D” or “F.”

Democrats have a much harsher assessment: 79 percent grade him a “D” or “F,” compared with just 8 percent who give him an “A” or “B.”

Independent voters are also unimpressed. Just 27 percent would give Trump high marks — an “A” or “B” — while roughly twice as many, 45 percent, would give him a “D” or “F.”

Trump’s overall marks were higher the last time the POLITICO/Morning Consult poll asked voters to fill out his report card — as he approached the 100-day mark in April of last year. At that point in his presidency, 39 percent of voters gave him an “A” or “B,” while only 37 percent gave him a “D” or “F.”

But although his overall grades have declined markedly between Day 100 and Day 365, Republican voters are happier with his performance now, the poll shows.

"Despite a tumultuous first year in office, our polling shows an uptick in Republican voters who think Trump is doing an excellent job as president,” said Morning Consult co-founder and Chief Research Officer Kyle Dropp. “In mid-April, 33 percent of Republicans said they would grade Trump’s presidency an ‘A,’ compared to 43 percent of Republicans who said they would give him the same grade today.”







Trump’s best subject, per his report card, are the economy, jobs and fighting terrorism. With a healthy economy and the Dow Jones industrial average at an all-time high, 42 percent of voters give Trump an “A” or “B” on the economy and jobs. But a considerable number don’t credit him at all — 36 percent give him a “D” or “F.”

On fighting terrorism, his grades are a wash — 39 percent of respondents give him an “A” or “B,” the same percentage that gives him a “D” or “F.”

On all other subjects, more voters give Trump low marks than high ones. His worst subject is climate change, the poll shows — hardly a surprise given Trump’s past statements questioning scientists’ conclusions about global warming. Roughly half of voters (49 percent) give him a “D” or “F,” while only a quarter (24 percent) give Trump an “A” or “B.”

In what might be a warning sign, Trump earns low marks on some core Republican issues. After a year in which he and the GOP made modest progress in rolling back the Democratic-passed Affordable Care Act, only 27 percent give Trump an “A” or “B” on health care. Nearly half, 48 percent, give him a “D” or “F.”

Only one-third of voters, 33 percent, give Trump an “A” or “B” on immigration — the issue on which he built much of his presidential campaign — while close to half (46 percent) give him a “D” or “F.” (The poll was conducted 4-5, prior to before the latest negotiations over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, at which Trump apparently used racially charged language to characterize countries such as Haiti and El Salvador and African nations.)



Trump also scores poorly on the national debt (28 percent “A” or “B,” versus 47 percent “D” or “F”) and foreign relations (30 percent “A” or “B,” versus 48 percent “D” or “F”). Only 33 percent give him an “A” or “B” thus far on international trade, compared to 40 percent who give him a “D” or “F.”

Few voters think Trump has changed the culture of the nation’s capital: Only 22 percent give him an “A” or “B” on “draining the swamp,” while nearly twice as many (42 percent) think he deserves a “D” or an “F.”

Trump is only a quarter of the way into his term as president, and voters are divided along partisan lines about his remaining time in office. Overall, 37 percent of voters think his performance will get better, 37 percent think it will get worse and 19 percent think it will stay about the same.

The POLITICO/Morning Consult poll was conducted Jan. 4-5. It surveyed 1,988 registered voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Morning Consult is a nonpartisan media and technology company that provides data-driven research and insights on politics, policy and business strategy.

More details on the poll and its methodology can be found in these two documents — Toplines: http://politi.co/2Da3pop | Crosstabs: http://politi.co/2EM6Ku9

