(CN) - Growing numbers of Americans have little or no confidence in the ability of President Donald Trump or Republican congressional leaders to do their jobs, according to a Pew Research Center report released Thursday.
In a survey of more than 1,500 people during the last week of October, Pew researchers found that, since April, there has been a decline in Americans’ confidence in Trump to handle several aspects of his job.
Today, only 39 percent of Americans are confident that Trump can work effectively with Congress, down 7 percent from April.
Only 39 percent of Americans said they are confident in Trump’s ability to handle an international crisis, and 59 percent say they are not too or not at all confident in Trump’s ability to handle the situation in North Korea.
The majority of Americans, 59 percent, disapprove of the way Trump is handling his job as president, and overwhelming majorities of black Americans (87 percent) and Hispanic Americans (72 percent) disapprove of his job performance.
However, the country still has more confidence in Trump than in congressional leaders from both parties, according to the 40-page Pew report. Only 22 percent of Americans approve of the way Republican congressional leaders are doing their jobs, down 12 percentage points since February, and 29 percent approve of Democratic lawmakers, down 8 percent.
The report attributes this downward shift to the fact that fewer Republicans and Democrats are expressing positive views of their own party leaders, compared to February, when Americans expressed more confidence in their parties’ leaders.
The survey -- conducted before Republican lawmakers released their tax plan Thursday, which would significantly cut corporate taxes -- found that 44 percent of Americans believe that lowering taxes for corporations would make the tax system less fair, compared to 25 percent who believe such cuts would make the tax system more fair.
Currently, 43 percent of Americans believe that Democrats could better lead the country on tax policy, while 36 percent have more confidence in Republicans to handle taxes, according to the study.
The report also found that few Americans expect there to be any progress in reducing the federal budget deficit over the next five years. Only 30 percent expect that progress will be achieved, down from 44 percent in December 2012.
The American public also has less confidence than it used to in the Republican Party to deal with the threat of terrorism at home. In April, 48 percent of Americans said they preferred the Republican Party’s approach to dealing with the threat of terrorism, but today only 37 percent believe the party could do a better job than Democrats on the issue. The survey was conducted before the Oct. 31 terrorist attack in New York City.
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