President Donald Trump will be in Dallas for a fundraiser Wednesday in a week which also sees a convocation of Trump fundraisers presided over by T. Boone Pickens at his Amarillo ranch and a paid speech by Donald Trump, Jr. at the University of North Texas. The Trump visit comes in the wake of fresh data from the UT/Texas Tribune Poll on Texans’ attitudes toward the president's job performance overall, his handling of various public matters, and his character traits. Ross Ramsey wrote about the Trump numbers in The Texas Tribune when they were released last week.
Gromer Jeffers Jr. and Todd Gillman wrote a good preview piece in the Dallas Morning News that incorporated the latest UT/Texas Tribune poll numbers as part of a look at Trump’s position in Texas. We’ve gathered some highlights of the poll numbers below to mark the presidential visit.
We’ll give pride of place to a few graphics that qualify some of the partisan quotes given to Gillman and Jeffers for their preview. State Democratic Party chairman Gilberto Hinojosa spun Trump’s polling numbers thusly:
"This guy's polling horrendously," he said. And to be below 50 percent in Texas, he added, "a state that's considered to be solid red, is a sign of problems. ... It's a product of the messes he's created."
Trump’s overall number is below fifty because Democrats are so steadfastly negative about Trump, as a look at Trump’s numbers broken down by party illustrate.
| category | Democrat | Independent | Republican |
|---|---|---|---|
| Approve strongly | 3% | 31% | 47% |
| Approve somewhat | 2% | 24% | 31% |
| Neither approve nor disapprove | 3% | 9% | 6% |
| Disapprove somewhat | 8% | 10% | 7% |
| Disapprove strongly | 84% | 25% | 8% |
| Don't know | 1% | 1% | 1% |
State Republican party chairman James Dickey recognized that Democrats’ deep opposition to Trump deflates his absolute number, and uses the fact to portray them as SO much more unfair to Trump that Republicans were to President Barack Obama:
"Republicans were willing to give President Obama the benefit of the doubt," so he enjoyed more cross-party support, Dickey asserted. "For whatever reason, Democrats have decided it's my way or the highway. That's unfortunate."
A brief look at our extensive time series of Obama’s public approval numbers among Texas Republicans suggests the amount of spin the GOP chairman was generating here deserves a rating on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. In the October 2009 UT/Texas Tribune Poll, Barack Obama's job approval stood at 40 percent overall, with 89 percent of Texas Republicans disapproving – remarkably similar, in fact, to Trump's overall job approval of 45 percent, with 92 percent of Democrats disapproving, in October 2017.
| Total GOP Disapproval | GOP Disapprove Strongly | GOP Disapprove Somewhat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 2009 | 89% | 80% | 9% |
| February 2010 | 88% | 75% | 13% |
| May 2010 | 95% | 85% | 10% |
| October 2010 | 94% | 88% | 6% |
| February 2011 | 91% | 80% | 11% |
| May 2011 | 92% | 81% | 11% |
| October 2011 | 91% | 85% | 6% |
| February 2012 | 95% | 88% | 7% |
| May 2012 | 91% | 82% | 9% |
| October 2012 | 95% | 85% | 10% |
| February 2013 | 94% | 86% | 8% |
| June 2013 | 90% | 79% | 11% |
| October 2013 | 92% | 81% | 11% |
| February 2014 | 91% | 80% | 11% |
| June 2014 | 93% | 86% | 7% |
| October 2014 | 93% | 86% | 7% |
| February 2015 | 92% | 82% | 10% |
| June 2015 | 90% | 80% | 10% |
| November 2015 | 90% | 82% | 8% |
| February 2016 | 90% | 81% | 9% |
| June 2016 | 88% | 81% | 7% |
| October 2016 | 89% | 80% | 9% |
Some more Trump data points from the October 2017 UT/Texas Tribune Poll.
Partisan views on Trump’s handling of issues also undermines Hinojosa’s claim in the Dallas Morning News that “the messes he’s made” have undermined Trump’s poll numbers (at least among Republicans) – getting the Democratic chair close to an EF rating, too.
The one place where Trump did merely terribly instead of abysmally among Democrats was his handling of the aftermath of Harvey & other storms that hit the continental United States.
| category | Democrat | Independent | Republican |
|---|---|---|---|
| Approve strongly | 5% | 45% | 71% |
| Approve somewhat | 15% | 20% | 16% |
| Neither approve nor disapprove | 18% | 13% | 6% |
| Disapprove somewhat | 17% | 4% | 3% |
| Disapprove strongly | 40% | 14% | 3% |
| Don't know | 5% | 4% | 1% |
Republicans may be skeptical of some of Trump’s traits, but still see him as a strong leader – and that’s what seems to count with them.
Trump is performing particularly well among the Tea Party faction in Texas.
| category | Democrat | Republican | Tea Party |
|---|---|---|---|
| Approve strongly | 1% | 44% | 63% |
| Approve somewhat | 4% | 34% | 23% |
| Neither approve nor disapprove | 4% | 8% | 1% |
| Disapprove somewhat | 6% | 6% | 6% |
| Disapprove strongly | 85% | 7% | 7% |
| Don't know | 0% | 0% | 0% |
If you're looking for all of the Donald Trump-related items from the October 2017 UT/Texas Tribune Poll, our search page makes them easy to find and then filter for what you seek.