Poll: Majority of Voters Think Trump Keeping Promises, Blame Washington Elites for Delays

DJT Fist Jonathan ErnstReuters
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

A majority of voters think President Trump is keeping his campaign promises, while also believing that Washington elites are to blame for the delays in getting his policies enacted, according to a new poll released Thursday.

The George Washington University battleground poll found that 51 percent of voters agreed with the statement “Donald Trump had been keeping his campaign promises” with 44 percent disagreeing.

But when asked about the reasons for the delay in getting some of his promises enacted, 52 percent of respondents agreed that “Washington elites are to blame for the delay in passing some of these reforms.”

The poll comes at a time when Trump has been increasingly locking horns with top Republican leaders over priorities in Congress. Trump said at a rally in Phoenix, Arizona Tuesday that he was prepared to shut down the government if Congress would not fund a wall at the southern border.

On Thursday Trump attacked both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) over their approach to raising the debt ceiling, saying that they had not followed his advice and as a result are at the mercy of Democrats.

“They didn’t do it so now we have a big deal with Dems holding them up (as usual) on Debt Ceiling approval,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Could have been so easy-now a mess!”

Responding to reports of a rift between him and McConnell, Trump said:

“The only problem I have with Mitch McConnell is that, after hearing Repeal & Replace for 7 years, he failed!” he wrote on Twitter, referring to the Senate’s failure to pass a bill repealing and replacing Obamacare. “That should NEVER have happened!”

The poll found respondents critical of Trump’s behavior at times, with 71 percent saying his “behavior is not what I expect from a president.” However, the poll found Trump with considerably higher favorability ratings than congressional leaders.

While the number of voters who viewed Trump favorably sat at a low 41 percent, Ryan’s number was 36 percent and McConnell’s was a mere 19 percent favorability.

Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was viewed favorably by 34 percent of voters, while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was viewed favorably by 27 percent — although 29 percent of those surveyed said they had never heard of him.

Adam Shaw is a Breitbart News politics reporter based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter:  @AdamShawNY

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