'No historical analogy': Voters 'abandoning' Trump 'in record numbers' https://www.alternet.org/trump-approval-cnn-enten/
For some background - Meredith polling is housed in Meredith College in Raleigh. It is considered one of the leading and most accurate polling firms focused on North Carolina. Trump approval falls in North Carolina as voters fret about tariffs' impact on economy President Donald Trump's tariff announcements are prompting North Carolinians to worry more about the economy and the future of the nation, according to a new poll from Meredith College. https://www.wral.com/story/trump-ap...ret-about-tariffs-impact-on-economy/21964505/ President Donald Trump’s favorability rating is dropping in the Tar Heel State as North Carolinians’ economic outlook sours in part due to new tariff policies, according to a new poll from Meredith College. The Meredith Poll, released this week, found that 41% of likely North Carolina voters approve of the job Trump is doing, down from 47% in February. Meanwhile, 56% of respondents said they disapprove of Trump’s job performance, up from 49% just two months ago. The April online poll of 759 likely North Carolina voters was conducted between April 3 and April 8. It has a credibility interval of 3.5 percentage points. A credibility interval is similar to margin of error but takes into account more factors and is considered by some pollsters to be a more accurate measurement of statistical certainty. The February approval ratings, Trump’s highest since 2018, were tied to voter sentiment about the economy. At the time, most respondents expressed optimism about their financial future under Trump, with nearly two-thirds saying they expect their finances to improve by early next year. Since then, North Carolinians’ beliefs about the future have turned. Sixty percent of respondents to the April poll said they were dissatisfied with the direction of the country, including a majority of Democrats (67%) and Republicans (55%). Fewer than half (43%) of all respondents said they expect the economy to improve within a year. Trump won North Carolina in the November election, with 51% of the vote. David McLennan, the Meredith Poll director and a political science professor at the Raleigh university, said it’s unusual for the president’s own party to share such anxiety. And he pointed to a primary cause: Trump’s announcement of tariffs on U.S. trade partners around the world. Economists have predicted that the administration’s new tariffs will ultimately push up prices for U.S. consumers and slow the economy. “It is hard for people to be optimistic about the economy’s future when they are worried about the price of goods and their retirement funds,” McLennan said. Forty-seven percent of respondents to the Meredith Poll said they think tariffs will hurt their personal finances, while only 23% believe tariffs will help their wallets. Another 29% said they weren’t sure, but 53% said they doubt that the tariffs will have a positive impact on the economy. Republicans and people with less educational attainment had more confidence in the tariffs, while only 20% of people with a college degree said they believe the tariffs will help. “Republicans have a more ‘wait-and-see’ attitude about the impact of tariffs,” McLennan said. “They are much more willing to give President Trump the benefit of the doubt even as the stock market plunges.” The poll also asked North Carolinians about a range of issues, from Trump’s immigration policies to the direction of their state. Deporting immigrants: Sixty percent of respondents said they believe Trump’s efforts to deport what the poll described as “immigrants who should not be in the United States” have been effective. Fifty-eight percent said that those being considered for deportation deserve the same legal rights to due process as American citizens. Meredith conducted the survey just days after a federal judge ruled that immigration officials had wrongly deported a Maryland man to El Salvador. Asked about the pace of deportations, 35% of respondents said they should be increased and 32% said they should be decreased. Slashing federal government: The poll found that 67% of North Carolinians are concerned about a loss in government services amid cuts to federal agencies by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, the group created by Trump and led by billionaire Elon Musk. A majority of Republicans (53%) support the effort, while 42% of Republicans said they’re “concerned.” Democrats were more unified in their opinion of DOGE: 90% of Democratic respondents are concerned with it.