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Iowans believe the country’s headed in the wrong direction and that President Donald Trump isn’t doing a good job.

Sixty percent of respondents to this month’s Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll say the United States has gotten off on the wrong track, and 60 percent likewise disapprove of the job Trump, a Republican, is doing as president.

“It just seems like it’s one big mess,” said poll respondent Nick Ford, a Navy veteran and businessman from Cedar Rapids.

Ford, a 49-year-old political independent, lamented the “general craziness” of the country’s political arena and the “unprofessionalism” he sees in the White House.

The president, he said, “seems overwhelmed by the task. I didn’t vote for him, but I was hoping some things would change. I don’t think anything’s really changed — for the better, anyway.”

Trump’s 35-percent job approval rating marks a sharp decline from earlier this year in Iowa. In the July Iowa Poll, 43 percent of respondents approved of Trump’s effort, while 52 percent disapproved, a differential of 9 percentage points. Now, he’s 25 points under water.

A poll aggregation performed by the website FiveThirtyEight shows Trump with a national approval rating of about 37 percent, against around 57 percent who disapprove.

The Iowa Poll, conducted by Selzer and Co. of Des Moines, questioned 802 Iowa adults Dec. 3-6 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Trump is unpopular across a wide range of demographic groups in the state.

Sixty-nine percent of women, 68 percent of Iowans making less than $50,000 a year, 67 percent of city-dwellers and 62 percent of independents disapprove of his performance.

“He’s not really a leader,” said Diana Fern, 56, a homebirth midwife from Fairfield. “Because he doesn’t have experience, he’s not really leading. I feel like he’s reacting to situations, and he hasn’t really stated a clear vision. And I think his integrity is in question.”

Fern described herself as a political independent, but said she favors female candidates and more often votes Democratic than Republican.

Across all the demographics recorded in the poll, just two show a majority approving of Trump: Republicans, at 78 percent, and evangelical Christians, at 51 percent.

Republican poll respondent Jacob Mead, of Ankeny, said he approves of Trump’s performance in large part because of the tax reform bill now under discussion in Congress. That legislation will allow Mead to hire another employee at a business he owns.

“I’m really thinking that it’s going to help small businesses and in general just help the community,” he said.

Mead, 25, added that he’s at times put off by Trump’s “tempers and tantrums,” but believes they’re not affecting his performance as president.

Iowans’ concerns about the direction of the country are even less optimistic than their views on Trump: Just 29 percent say the country is headed in the right direction.

That view is consistent across Iowans of different ages, incomes and locations. The only outlier is political affiliation: 62 percent of Republicans see the U.S. headed in the right direction, against 25 percent who say it’s on the wrong track.

Among independents, views are almost exactly the opposite: 26 percent say the U.S. is on the right track against 63 percent who say it’s on the wrong track.

After a wild 2017 that saw Trump take office, bruising congressional fights over health care and taxes, an ongoing investigation into Russian election meddling and, in recent weeks, rising attention on sexual harassment, a strong majority of Iowans say they’re increasingly repelled by politics.

Fully 61 percent of Iowans say they’re more turned off by politics now than they were at the time of the 2016 election, while just 33 percent say they’re more politically energized.

Poll respondent Jessica Thomas, a stay-at-home mom from Maquoketa, is among those feeling more turned off. When she engages with politics these days, it’s mostly with resignation.

“It’s gotten to the point now that you just ask, 'What has he done now?,'" Thomas, 38, a Democrat, asked. "What is he trying to do to us now?”

That distaste for politics is consistent across demographic groups: Majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents alike say they’re more turned off than they are energized by the events of the past year.

The results run counter to a national narrative suggesting Democrats have been fired up and spurred to action by the early Trump administration. Indeed, 60 percent of Democratic respondents say they’re more turned off by politics than they were a year ago. Just 34 percent say they’re more energized.

A larger share of Republicans, in fact, reports heightened engagement in the Trump era. Forty percent say they’re more energized while 52 percent say they’re more tuned out. Among independents, two-thirds say they’re more alienated against 28 percent who are more energized.

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Among those Republicans feeling energized is Scott Baskerville, a retired convenience store owner from Windsor Heights. As a retiree living off investments, he said he's delighted by the rising stock market and signals of economic strength.

His political engagement has been heightened, he said, by the negative reaction he saw from Democrats and liberals in the wake of Trump's victory.

"All that fighting by the liberals is pushing people to the right," said Baskerville, 56. "People who were always moderate, like me, feel more energized toward the right because of the way the left reacted like a bunch of spoiled babies."

Vice President Mike Pence remains generally popular in the state, with a 48 percent plurality approving of the job he’s doing. Forty-two percent disapprove and 10 percent aren’t sure.

That’s down slightly from July, when 52 percent indicated approval.

In contrast with their feelings about the country as a whole, Iowans are feeling better about the direction of their state.

A 47 percent plurality say Iowa is headed in the right direction, against 40 percent who say it’s on the wrong track. Thirteen percent are unsure.

That represents a slight uptick from the Register’s February Iowa Poll, in which 44 percent said the state was headed in the right direction.

There is, however, a pronounced partisan difference in perceptions of the state’s direction. While 78 percent of Republicans see Iowa headed in the right direction, just 23 percent of Democrats and 46 percent of self-identified independents feel the same way.

About the poll

The Iowa Poll, conducted December 3-6 for The Des Moines Register and Mediacom by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines, is based on telephone interviews with 802 Iowans ages 18 or older. Interviewers with Quantel Research contacted households with randomly selected landline and cell phone numbers supplied by Survey Sampling International. Interviews were administered in English. Responses were adjusted by age and sex to reflect the general population based on recent census data.

Questions based on the sample of 802 Iowa adults have a maximum margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. This means that if this survey were repeated using the same questions and the same methodology, 19 times out of 20, the findings would not vary from the true population value by more than plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. Results based on smaller samples of respondents — such as by gender or age—have a larger margin of error.

Republishing the copyright Iowa Poll without credit to The Des Moines Register and Mediacom is prohibited.