Donald Trump’s tweets are the reason his approval rating is low: poll

U.S. President Donald Trump should be careful what he tweets. That’s according to a new CNN poll released just before Trump’s 200th day in office.

In a poll by CNN, 52 per cent of respondents say Twitter is not an effective way for the president to communicate, and nearly a quarter say tweets don’t send a good message to the rest of the world.

The reason why Trump tweets is under scrutiny, though, with seven in 10 people saying that his tweets seem to be in response to TV news too often.

Not long after the poll was published, Trump tweeted: “Don’t believe the Fake News Suppression Polls.”

Sixty per cent of respondents say Trump’s tweets are “easy to misunderstand,” CNN reports, with another 63 per cent saying the tweets are often misleading.

A closer look at the numbers show that it’s not just the president’s enemies who feel this way: 57 per cent of Republicans said his tweets are too responsive to television news, 49 per cent of Republicans say the tweets don’t send a good message to other world leaders, and 50 per cent of respondents in Trump’s own party say his Twitter is a “risky way to communicate.”

And the Twitter problem has a direct correlation to his approval rating.

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“If Trump scaled back his tweeting … his numbers would almost certainly improve, according to the CNN poll,” said Chris Cillizza, editor-at-large at CNN.

Trump’s six months in office have been dominated by what he puts on Twitter, from a policy suggestion on transgender people’s place in the military, to announcing staffing changes, to lashing out against his rivals, the mainstream media and … people on his staff.

Approval ratings

Trump’s approval rating has dropped yet again, according to the CNN poll and another released late Monday.

In an IBD/TIPP poll, his approval rating was at a new low of 32 per cent; the CNN poll places it at 38 per cent.

Trump’s support among his own party has also dipped; the IBD/TIPP poll says only 71 per cent of Republican respondents approve of Trump’s presidency, down 12 points from July.

CNN reports that the only other president with an approval rating lower than 50 per cent at the 200-day mark was Bill Clinton at 44 per cent in 1993.