Most Say Trump, Congress Need to Work Together
Voters are more critical of the job Congress is doing, and most continue to believe the legislators should work more with President Trump. They also still think the president, not Democratic congressional leader Nancy Pelosi, should set the agenda.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 52% of Likely U.S. Voters feel it is better for the country if Congress works with Trump most of the time. Thirty-nine percent (39%) disagree and say it’s better if Congress opposes the president most of the time. These findings are unchanged from January of last year, but the number who thought it better for the two to work together is down from 56% in January 2017 just before Trump took office. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Voters see illegal immigration as the most important issue Congress should tackle but have very little confidence that the president and the Democratic majority in the House will work together.
A plurality (47%) continues to believe Trump, not Pelosi, should set the direction of the country for the next two years. Thirty-three percent (33%) say the House speaker should be in charge, while 15% want neither calling the shots. These attitudes haven’t changed since the end of last year following the Democrats’ election takeover of the House of Representatives.
With Pelosi struggling to keep far-left legislators in her party under control and Republicans still in charge of the Senate, the new Congress has accomplished little this year. Just 20% of voters rate their work performance as good or excellent. Forty-seven percent (47%) say Congress is doing a poor job. These findings have changed little over the last seven months but are still a more positive overall assessment than Congress has earned for several years prior to this.
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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on May 12-13, 2019 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC.
Fifty-one percent (51%) of voters agree with Trump’s statement earlier this year that “we have people in Congress, right now we have people in Congress that hate our country."
Eighty-eight percent (88%) of Republicans think it’s better for the country if Congress works with the president most of the time, but 64% of Democrats disagree. There’s a similar range of disagreement over whether Republican Trump or Democrat Pelosi should set the nation’s agenda. Unaffiliated voters are closely divided on both questions.
Most Republicans (57%) and unaffiliated voters (52%) say Congress is doing a poor job, but only 34% of Democrats agree.
Democrats remain obsessed with impeachment, but voters think Trump’s removal from office would be bad for the economy.
Voters don't care for each party's leader in Congress. Half the voters in the country don’t like Pelosi, but just as many disapprove of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Congress’ top Republican.
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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on May 12-13, 2019 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC.
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