Elon University has released a new poll that asked North Carolinians what they think about President Donald Trump. The poll was taken during the lead-up to the president's first 100 days in office.Kaye Usry, assistant director of the Elon poll, said a smaller percentage of North Carolinians approve of Trump's performance than voted for him, but that state approval ratings are on par with national polls.
"There was actually a poll in this field nationally, roughly during the same period of time that we did this poll in North Carolina. And in that poll, Trump's approval was tracking at around 42 percent. In the state of North Carolina, it's the same," Usrey said.
In fact, exactly the same. Forty-two percent of North Carolinians approve of how he's handling the job. But that's less than the nearly 50 percent of North Carolina voters that cast a ballot for Trump in the election.
Usry said while many of people's perceptions split along party lines, there was one thing most voters agreed on.
"We find that, surprisingly, three-fourths of North Carolina voters think his use of Twitter is inappropriate," Usry said.
Ninety-four percent of Democrats think it's inappropriate, and half of Republicans think the president's use of Twitter inappropriate.
Other key findings:
- Forty-nine percent say Trump is doing a worse job than President Obama, compared to 39 percent who say Trump is outperforming his predecessor.
- Fifty-nine percent of North Carolina voters polled disapprove of Trump's plan to build a border wall with Mexico.
- While only 32 percent think Obamacare improves the healthcare situation, 50 percent of North Carolina voters think President Trump and Congress should move on to other issues and not continue efforts to repeal and replace the law.
- North Carolina voters polled don’t appear to be very familiar with major players in the president’s administration. The poll asked voters if they approved of Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner, Sean Spicer and Ivanka Trump. Many said they didn't know enough about each advisor to form an opinion.
- Kushner, a senior advisor to the president and Ivanka Trump’s husband, was the least well-known, with 51 percent not having an opinion about him.