Donald Trump’s approval rating continues to drop. The latest Pew Research Center poll, released Thursday, found that only 37% of Americans approve of how he’s handling his job as president — the lowest rating of his second term.
The poll also shows Trump deeply underwater among some key demographics: Almost three-quarters of Asian and Hispanic voters have an unfavorable view of him, and only 30% of voters age 18 to 29 approve of the job he’s doing as president.
On Friday’s “Morning Joe,” branding and marketing expert Donny Deutsch called the results “pretty stunning.”
Deutsch said he believed the president’s sinking poll numbers had “a lot” to do with his immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
“This is the first time I’ve heard so many Trump voters say to me — and I’m surrounded by a lot of Trump voters, you know — ‘This is a bridge too far.’” He added that the people he speaks to believe the operation “feels so un-American” and “inhumane.”
Deutsch said the president is aware of how his immigration enforcement policies are playing to the American people. The branding expert said he believed a recent FBI raid at a Fulton County elections office in Georgia was, in part, an attempt to create a distraction.
“I think it’s no coincidence that happened now to defer attention away from,” immigration, he argued, which he characterized as a “losing issue.”
“Morning Joe” co-host Jonathan Lemire said the new poll reflected “something we very rarely see, which is part of Trump’s own base seems to be, if not abandoning him, but at least questioning him, his ability for the job, and certainly the direction his policies have taken.”
According to the poll, only 52% of Republicans said they believed the president respected the country’s democratic values, and 42% said he acts ethically in office — down from 55% at the beginning of his second term.
“I think some of them didn’t think he actually might have been completely serious about what mass deportations would look like as well,” Mika Brzezinski added. “It’s all very shocking and really scary for a lot of Americans.”
Lemire called the results “striking” and noted that it was particularly interesting “as we are now barreling towards the midterms.”
You can watch the full analysis from “Morning Joe” in the clip at the top of the page.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW. She was previously a segment producer for “AYMAN” and “The Mehdi Hasan Show.”