US President Donald Trump frequently casts his first year in office as a string of successes and campaign promises fulfilled. But less than a quarter of Americans think Trump has made good on the pledges he made to voters while running for president, according to a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Among Republicans, just half say Trump has kept his promises, which included vows to overhaul his predecessor’s healthcare law, withdraw the United States from a nuclear accord with Iran and invest millions in new projects to fix the nation’s aging infrastructure. None of those steps have been taken, AP reported.
“Everything has stalled out,” said Mark Krowski, 37, an independent from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who leans Republican but didn’t vote for Trump last year.
As 2017 comes to a close, the majority of Americans painted a broadly pessimistic view of Trump’s presidency, the nation’s politics and the overall direction of the country. Just three in 10 Americans said the United States is heading in the right direction, and 52% said the country is worse off since Trump became president —worrisome signs both for the White House and Republicans heading into a midterm election next year where control of Congress will be at stake.
Along with the 23% who think Trump has kept his promises, another 30% think he has tried and failed and 45% think he hasn’t kept them at all.
In a second AP-NORC poll conducted this month, Trump’s job approval rating sits at just 32%, making him the least popular first-year president on record. A quarter of Republicans say they’re among those who disapprove of the president.
***Poverty Set to Increase
Meanwhile, a United Nations expert slammed the alarming levels of poverty in the US on Friday, saying that the situation is likely to get worse under Trump, DW reported.
Official US figures show that more than one in eight Americans live in poverty, but the UN official warned that the numbers are likely to rise under the Republican’s new tax reform plan.
Philip Alston, the UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, undertook a two-week fact-finding visit to several US states and Puerto Rico. Alston detailed several examples of poverty he found during his tour, including children raised in poverty have little to no access to healthcare, quality nutrition or decent education.
The return of Hookworm, an intestinal parasite, in several communities in the south and poor people who are often in an out of prison were also other examples in his findings.
