A slim majority of Utahns say President Donald Trump’s administration has mostly failed at improving race relations in the U.S. according to a new survey.
The UtahPolicy.com/KUTV 2News poll from Y2 Analytics finds 53 percent of Utahns say the Trump administration has mostly failed at improving race relations. Just under a third (29 percent) say they’ve mostly succeeded, while 18 percent say the results have been mixed.
Last week a UtahPolicy.com/KUTV 2 News poll showed that most Utahns believed race relations were in bad shape nationally.
The Trump administration has stumbled on race relations time and again during his tenure in office. After white nationalists and counter-protesters clashed in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, Trump was widely criticized for saying there were fine people on “both sides” of the violence.
In 2018, during an Oval Office meeting on immigration reform, Trump allegedly referred to El Salvador, Haiti and African countries as “shitholes,” which was widely seen as a racist comment. Trump also has attacked four Democratic congresswomen of color on Twitter.
On Sunday, Trump tweeted out a video of a supporter in Florida chanting “white power.” He deleted the tweet in the face of online outrage.
Trump has repeatedly touted his administration’s progress in boosting economic gains for Black Americans. African American unemployment did hit a low last year level last year, but household median income for Blacks was higher before Trump took office.
In the wake of the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, national polling shows 58 percent of Americans disapprove of President Trump’s handling of race relations, while just 33 percent say they approve.
As with most issues involving the president, the results break sharply along partisan and ideological lines.
- 64 percent of “strong” Republicans say the Trump administration has “mostly succeeded” in improving race relations. 47 percent of independent voters who lean toward the GOP also say the Trump administration’s progress has been positive.
- 41 percent of moderate Republicans say the administration’s results on race relations have been mixed.
- 2/3rds of independent voters say the Trump administration has mostly failed.
- Democrats and independent-leaning Democrats are almost unanimous in believing the Trump administration has failed.
The same dynamic is at play in our polling when broken down by political ideology. Conservatives are firm in their belief that the Trump administration has succeeded in their approach to race relations, while moderates and liberals say the White House has failed.
The survey was conducted by Y2 Analytics from June 9-17, 2020 among 1,188 likely Utah voters. It has a margin of error +/- 2.9 percentage points.
