Donald Trump's Favorability Rating at 50 Percent, New Poll Shows
— -- A month after the election, the nation remains divided over President-elect Donald Trump, a new poll shows.
His favorability rating sits at 50 percent, according to a national Bloomberg poll out today.
Just 37 percent of Americans polled believe the country is heading in the right direction, while 49 percent feel that the country is heading in the wrong direction. The poll, conducted Dec. 2 through 5, also shows that 55 percent are more optimistic about a Trump presidency from his actions and statements since Election Day, while 35 percent are more pessimistic about the prospect of Trump in the White House.
And according to the Bloomberg poll, 51 percent of those surveyed are very or mostly confident that Trump will put America's interests ahead of his business's as he meets with foreign leaders. Last week he tweeted that he'll cut ties to his business "in total" to focus on running the country.
"While I am not mandated to do this under the law, I feel it is visually important, as President, to in no way have a conflict of interest with my various businesses," he wrote on Twitter. He also tweeted that he will hold a "major news conference" with his children, who are involved with his businesses, on Dec. 15.
In addition, the Bloomberg poll shows that a majority of respondents — 67 percent — believe Trump needs to choose between being president or a businessman, yet 69 percent believe it "goes too far" if Trump sells off his businesses in order to avoid conflicts of interest.
Seventy-nine percent hope Trump drops the combative tone he displayed on the campaign trail once he's in office, the poll shows.
An overwhelming 73 percent are fine with his adjusting a few of his campaign promises — including appointing a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server, barring foreign Muslims from entering the U.S. and repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, or "Obamacare," according to the poll. Just 20 percent view his reconsideration of these issues as broken promises.
Sixty-nine percent of those polled believe Trump will deliver on his campaign promise to repeal and replace "Obamacare." He recently said he'd like to keep parts of the ACA in place, such as protecting patients with existing conditions and allowing children to remain on their parents' plans until they're 26.
But when it comes to two of his key campaign promises related to immigration, more than half of those surveyed don't think he'll keep his word: 57 percent don't expect millions of undocumented immigrants to be deported, and 65 percent don't expect a wall to be built on the U.S.-Mexico border.
The poll has a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points.
