'Glass half empty': Republican strategist admits 'real problem' for Trump as polls roll in
Donald Trump (Reuters)

Americans are increasingly unsatisfied with Donald Trump's handling of the economy, and a Republican strategist examined what that means for his presidency.

A new CNN/SSRS poll shows 56 percent of the public disapproves of his handling of the economy, which is worse than at any point during his first term, and Americans are evenly split on his handling of the federal budget and management of the federal government.

"There's a glass-half-full and glass-half-empty way to read them," said GOP strategist and pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson. "The glass-half-full way to read them is this is still better than a lot of what Trump saw during his first term. He still is looking a little bit better than you would have expected in a for a president that has such high, say, unfavorable numbers, where a lot of Americans go, 'I don't really like him, but I guess I like what he's doing.' On the other hand, this is a decline from the start of his term. It is, and especially the fact that it's disapproval on the economy ticking lower is a real problem."

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The survey also found 51 percent approved of his work on immigration, which was 7 points higher than at any point in his first term, but only 12 percent listed immigration as their top concern, compared to 42 percent of Americans named the economy as their top issue – more than double of any of the six other choices on the poll's list.

"I think for a lot of folks," said Washington Post correspondent Sabrina Rodriguez, "the calculus was, you know, I was tired of hearing on the campaign trail last year, people say, 'I don't really like the way he talks, I don't really necessarily agree with everything he says, but I think he's going to be the person who's best for the economy,' and for a lot of folks, in these first 50 days of the Trump administration, they're sort of been this grace period. This, obviously things aren't going to change overnight, but a lot of people just want to kind of understand what the plan is."

"You know, people are not going to get into exactly every detail about what percentage tariffs are and things like that, folks at home, but they just want to understand, okay, what exactly is the plan here?" Rodriguez added. "Okay, it might be a little tough for a couple months, but I get the vision for six months, and a lot of people don't see that right now."

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