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The approval rating for United States President Donald Trump is at a low 32 per cent among young Americans, who gave him a poor score of 27 per cent on his race relations, according to a new poll on his first 100-day performance.
The national poll by Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics said 32 per cent of 18-29 year-old Americans approve of Trump’s job performance overall.
The poll shows that young Americans approval of Trump’s handling of the economy is at 37 per cent, his dealing with the Islamic State terrorist group at 33 per cent, health care at 30 per cent, climate change at 28 per cent and performance on race relations at 27 per cent.
“While we spend a lot of time talking about what divides us, younger millennials are seeking leaders who will unite us. This is both good government and good politics, and it is the overarching message from our last year of polling, town meetings and conversations with millennials from across the country,” said John Della Volpe, Polling Director at Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics.
The survey, which included more than 2,500 responses from 18 to 29-year-olds, found that millennials scored Trump’s performance lower than the general public does. With Trump’s national approval rating already lower than any modern president, the poll discloses another layer of dissatisfaction with the new administration.
On Trump’s 100-day performance, 41 per cent gave him an ‘F’ grade (the lowest) while 10 per cent gave him an ‘A’ grade (the highest).
The poll found that 59 per cent of young Americans agree they want to work towards helping unite and not further divide the country. It said that compared to five years ago, while more young Americans today believe that politics is relevant to their lives, fewer want to work in some form of public service.
In 2012, 31 per cent of the 18 to 29 year-olds agreed that public service is appealing and today the number has fallen to 25 per cent.
On elements of Trump’s agenda, three-in-five people believe his plan to end unfair trade practices will make America better.
When asked about a set of Trump’s proposed policies using the administration’s policy language, 60 per cent of young Americans say that “cracking down on countries” illegal and unfair trade practices that hurt American workers would make America better, while 13 per cent responded that it would make America worse.
There is less support for “repealing and replacing” the Affordable Care Act for “temporarily banning all refugees from coming into the US and temporarily banning issuance of new visas from 6 predominately Muslim countries in the Middle East, with 28 per cent saying it will make America better and 48 per cent disagreeing with it.
Further, when asked if they believed Trump’s use of Twitter is appropriate, 68 per cent of young Americans say that his use of the micro blogging site is mostly not appropriate for the office.
The poll also found that 10 per cent of respondents give the mainstream media an ‘A’ grade for coverage of Trump during the first 100 days.
For the survey, 2,650 young Americans between 18 and 29-years-old were interviewed.
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