Trump has low favorability rating in NY poll

A poll by Siena College shows New Yorkers have a negative view of President Donald Trump. His favorability rating has fallen from 41 percent in favor and 53 percent last month to 37-55, according to a poll from Jan. 22-26.

In the poll of 812 New Yorkers, a majority said Trump will make America better through his infrastructure policies and his policies dealing with the relationship between the United States and Russia.  However, on seven other issues, New Yorkers think he will make America worse, including large majorities when it comes to the environment and race relations.

“A strong majority of New Yorkers believes that the actions Trump takes on infrastructure will make America better, including a majority of Democrats,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg.  “That’s the only issue, however, that Democrats think Trump will make America better. A plurality of voters say the President will make America better regarding the relationship between the United States and Russia.”

The people surveyed by a 2-to-1 ratio said Trump will make the country worse with the environment and race relations.

“As Trump begins his presidency with a negative 37-55 favorability rating, Barack Obama leaves the presidency with his best favorability rating, 67-30 percent, since August 2009. Only Republicans, conservatives and Catholics have a favorable view of Trump, while only Republicans and conservatives have an unfavorable view of Obama,” Greenberg said. “A small majority of New Yorkers, 51-47 percent are pessimistic about the country’s future under President Trump; last month voters were nearly evenly divided, 49-48 percent optimistic.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and some of his new initiatives are viewed favorably in the poll.

“Cuomo’s agenda for 2017 is chock full of proposals – some new, some old – and many of them enjoy strong bipartisan support, while several others are supported by a majority of New Yorkers despite Republican opposition,” Greenberg said. “His four most popular proposals are creating a $2 billion clean water infrastructure fund, giving preference in state purchases to American-made goods, allowing ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft to operate across the state, and extending the millionaire’s tax, which even has the support of 61 percent of Republicans.”

There is also bipartisan support for the middle class child care tax credit, renovating JFK Airport, and constitutional amendments to limit state legislators’ outside income and implement term limits, Greenberg said.

Cuomo has a 56-37 percent favorability rating, from 56-36 percent in December. His job performance rating is a negative 45-53 percent, little changed from negative 44-54 percent last month. Currently, 47 percent are prepared to re-elect Cuomo in 2018, while 44 percent would prefer “someone else,” unchanged from December.

“While voters like his proposals and he traveled the state promoting them, it did not help boost Cuomo’s ratings, which continue a two-year trend of little fluctuation,” Greenberg said. “Since March 2015, Cuomo’s favorability rating has been between 49 and 57 percent every month and his positive job performance rating has been between 39 and 45 percent.”