The approval rating of United States President Donald Trump's performance in managing the government has declined significantly since the beginning of his second term, with most of the dissatisfaction coming from members of his own Republican Party, according to a survey released today by the Associated Press (AP) and the NORC research institute.
The poll was conducted before opposition Democrats made significant gains in the New York mayoral and gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey, as well as in a California redistricting referendum. It was also conducted before the U.S. Congress moved to end the longest budget shutdown in U.S. history.
The results show that only 33 percent of Americans approve of the way the Republican president is running the government. In a previous AP-NORC poll in March this year, that percentage was 43 percent.
The decline is largely due to Trump's declining approval ratings among Republicans and independents.
The survey shows that now only about two-thirds of Republicans - 68 percent - approve of the way Trump is running the government, down from 81 percent in March.
Only 25 percent of independents have a positive opinion of Trump's administration, down from 38 percent in March.
Trump and the administration have tried to place all responsibility for the federal government shutdown on Democrats, even though American adults also blame Republicans.
Trump's poor rating may also be a consequence of broader dissatisfaction with his dramatic, controversial interventions in the functioning of the federal government, with mass layoffs and the closure of ministries and other services, but also dissatisfaction with the drastic increase in tariffs, which has affected both the US economy and the population.
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