A majority of Americans disapprove of President-elect Donald Trump’s handling of his transition, and only 30% approve of his Cabinet choices, a new Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday finds.
The poll, released on the first week of hearings for Trump’s Cabinet nominees, finds several key numbers slipping for the incoming President.
More than half — 51% — of Americans surveyed disapprove of Trump’s handling of his transition, an increase in disapproval compared to a November Quinnipiac poll, when 46% disapproved of his transition handling. Meanwhile, the number of Americans calling him honest has decreased to 39% down from 42% in the November survey.
Fifty-two percent say Trump does not care about average Americans, and 62% say that he is not level-headed. As for his nominees, 40% of Americans disapprove of them, while 28% say they haven’t heard enough yet.
However, there were some positive responses for the President-elect. More than two-thirds — 68% — consider Trump intelligent and 71% say that he is a strong person.
“President Barack Obama leaves the White House a lot more popular than Donald Trump is as he crosses the threshold and saddles up for the most important job in the world,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University poll. “President-elect Trump gets points for strength and intelligence, but voters’ feelings about his personality traits, empathy, leadership and level-headedness, are headed south.”
The poll was conducted from January 5 to 9 with 899 voters nationwide and a margin of error of +/- 3.3 percentage points. Surveyors used live interviewers to call landlines and cell phones.
