Trump supporters' optimism starting to wear off

1 in 6 GOP voters 'mainly pessimistic'

By RYAN STRUYK , CNN

 Posted: 2:53 PM, August 04, 2017Updated: 3:22 PM, August 04, 2017

WASHINGTON (CNN) - More than six months into Donald Trump's young presidency, optimism among his core supporters -- and American voters at large -- is starting to fade.

After Trump's surprise victory in November, six in 10 American voters said they were mostly optimistic about his presidency. But that number slipped to 52 percent in March and 43 percent today -- now 10 percentage points underwater, according to new polling this week from Quinnipiac University.

Indeed, a majority of registered voters (53 percent) now say they are mostly pessimistic about the next few years of Trump's time in office.

And core groups that carried Trump to victory are not immune to the deteriorating optimism around the President about six months into his term.

Optimism for the Trump presidency among Republican voters dropped from a virtually unanimous 96 percent in January and March down to 84 percent now, with one in six Republicans now saying they are mainly pessimistic about his tenure.

But that's not the largest slide in optimism across demographic groups.

Larger drops come among some of Trump's other core groups. Optimism has slipped more than 20 points -- from 74 percent in November to 51 percent now -- among whites without a college degree, a group that carried his unexpected victory in Rust Belt states like Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Since November, optimism has dropped from 64 percent to 45 percent among whites, and even more dramatically among white women, six in 10 of whom now say they are mostly pessimistic about the Trump presidency.

Trump consistently garners his most positive marks on the economy, which has added a million jobs since he took office and hovers at record-low unemployment. Still, he's left without a major legislative accomplishment after efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare failed.

Quinnipiac's polling showed a sharp downshift in Trump's approval ratings in the last month among whites without college degrees, but other polling is showing a more gradual change.

In Gallup's daily tracking polling on Trump's approval rating, whites without a college degree have also shown a slight but steady decline. Trump started at 62 percent approval with this key group when he took office in January, but has since slipped from 56 percent in May to 54 percent in June and to 53 percent in July.

Still, Republicans have mostly stayed on board in Gallup's approval ratings over the last six months, which means Trump's low approvals are actually largely driven by Democrats and independents.

The Quinnipiac University poll of 1,125 registered voters was conducted from July 27 to August 1. It has a margin of error of ±3.4 percentage points among all voters.

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