President Donald Trump remains a polarizing figure in the Beehive State. A new Utah Political Trends survey finds 55% of Utahns disapprove of President Trump’s job performance, while 45% say they approve.
Trump has never crossed 50% in Utah in most polling. He carried the state during the 2016 election with only 45.5% of the vote, and his approval ratings have hovered around that level ever since. That suggests Trump’s base of support in Utah remains consistent, but he has been unable to expand that support in the nearly three years he won the 2016 election.
In the new survey from UtahPolicy.com and Y2 Analytics:
- 28% of Utah voters say they “strongly” approve
- 17% “somewhat” approve
- 8% “somewhat” disapprove
- 47% “strongly” disapprove
Nearly half of Utahns say they strongly disapprove of Trump’s job performance, while only about a quarter strongly approve, suggesting opposition to Trump in Utah is much more intense than his level of support.
Overall, Trump’s job approval sits at a net negative 10-points.
Trump’s approval in Utah has remained remarkably steady since his election. In a June Utah Political Trends survey, Trump’s approval rating was a net negative 11-points.
The new Utah survey is in line with national polling on Trump’s job approval. The Real Clear Politics polling average shows Trump with a 43.5% job approval nationwide while 53.5% disapprove of how he is conducting himself in the Oval Office.
Trump’s highest disapproval is in the 4th District at 57%. That could be a deciding factor in the 2020 race as Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams has drawn 5 Republican challengers so far after narrowly defeating Republican Mia Love in 2018. If any of the Republicans challenging McAdams tie themselves too closely to the president, our polling suggests it might not go over too well with voters there.
Voters in Rep. Chris Stewart’s district disapprove of Trump’s job performance by a 51-47 margin. Stewart is one of Trump’s staunchest defenders in Congress, repeatedly defending him against criticism for any number of things. Most recently, Stewart has frequently appeared on cable news programs to defend Trump against allegations that he pressured the president of Ukraine to investigate the business dealings of the son of former vice president Joe Biden.
As always with Trump in Utah, there is a significant gender gap, with men approving of Trump’s job performance far more than women.
- 52% of men say they approve of Trump’s job performance, while 49% disapprove. 30% “strongly” approve of the job Trump is doing, while 40% say they “strongly” disapprove.
- A majority of women disapprove of how Trump is handling his job by a 62-37% margin. That includes 55% of women who “strongly” disapprove of Trump.
That 11-point Utah gender gap in Trump’s approval rating is mirrored in national polling. A Fox News poll from last week found 50% of men nationwide approve of Trump’s job performance, while only 37% of women said they liked the job he was doing.
The results of the survey broken down by partisan leaning should come as no surprise in our hyperpolarized culture. Republicans mostly approve of Trump’s job performance, while Democrats are almost united in disapproval.
Editor’s note: In our previous polls measuring job approval, we included a “neither approve nor disapprove” choice. We eliminated that choice from our current survey to make our polling more consistent with more national polls.
