FALLING BEHIND

Trump Left in the Dust in Major New York Times Poll Showing Biden 14 Percentage Points Ahead

The survey results show voters are rejecting Trump’s handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests.

President Donald Trump trails presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden by 14 percentage points in the first New York Times/Sienna College poll of the 2020 election cycle. The numbers reveal the president is in deep trouble—they show that his personal popularity has plummeted as he’s failed to get a grip on the novel coronavirus pandemic and following his angry and militaristic response to police-brutality protests. Nearly three-fifths of voters surveyed said they disapproved of Trump’s handling of the pandemic, and only a third said the government should prioritize restarting the economy even if it exacerbates public-health risks. Sixty-one percent of voters said they disapproved of Trump’s handling of race issues, an a similar number disapproved of the president’s response to the protests against police over the killing of George Floyd. Overall, the poll shows Biden on 50 percent of the national vote, compared to just 36 percent for Trump.