Most American voters are generally disappointed with the people that President Donald Trump has designated to publish in his administration, according to a NBC news survey earlier this month, a record participation in a question that NBC News has measured at the beginning of four previous administrations.
The survey was conducted from March 7 to 11, before the Atlantic published a story on Monday that revealed that several officials of the Trump administration, including the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, the national security advisor Mike Waltz and others, participated in a signal chat thread on the plans to launch air attacks against Houthi militants, in which Hegset the times and types of aircraft used. The thread of the signal included the editor in chief of the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, as well as Hegesh, Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, director of the CIA John Ratcliffe and others.
But before the issue of the management of the confidential information of Trump’s officials became public, the voters already had concerns about the people Trump were putting in their second administration.
Earlier this month, 52% of respondents said they were generally disappointed with the people Trump had designated to lead federal agencies and departments, while 45% said they were generally satisfied with their selections. The numbers are quite close to Trump’s general approval index, with 47% of registered voters who approve their job performance so far and 51% disapproval.
That is a greater proportion of voters who are disappointed with the Trump teams to lead federal agencies and departments than those who said the same in December 2016, shortly after Trump was chosen for his first mandate. And it is significantly higher than the participation that was disappointed near the beginning of the presidencies of Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. (The NBC news survey did not prove this question at the beginning of the administration of former President Joe Biden, but asked a more general question about how people judged the Biden presidential transition efforts).
In 2016, shortly before Trump’s first administration began, 44% of respondents He said they were generally disappointed with Trump’s planned nominees, while 43% said they were generally happy.
Before Obama’s first term in December 2008, about Two thirds of the Americans, 67%, said they were generally satisfied with the cabinet selections of the incoming president, while only 16% said they were generally disappointed.
Obama numbers track quite closely Bush and Clinton’s numbers. In January 2001, 54% of Americans were generally satisfied with Bush cabinet teams and only 17% of respondents said they were generally disappointed. Another 54% said they were generally satisfied with Clinton’s teams eight years before, while 14% said they were disappointed.
Although the “no” votes in the Cabinet nominees are increasing in general, several of the Trump teams were applied through the confirmation of the Senate on remarkably close votes. Hegesh was confirmed as a defense secretary only after Vance broke a draw, with three Republican senators voting against him. It was only the second time in history, after another nomination in the first Trump administration, which was necessary a vice presidential tie vote for a cabinet selection.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the director of the FBI, Kash Patel and Gabbard, also faced votes close to the Senate with at least one republican vote against him.
Family partisan divisions drive numbers
The division of those voters who are pleased and disappointed with Trump’s teams generally fall into the lines of the party, with 88% of Republican voters who say they are satisfied with Trump’s nominees in their second administration and 95% of the Democrats say they are disappointed in their elections. (The number of independents included in this survey question was too small to separate, due to the smallest sample size in this question).
Only 10% of Republican voters said they were disappointed with Trump’s staff, while 4% of Democratic voters said they were satisfied with their choices.
In previous times, the voters who support the party they had lost to the incoming president It had divided more uniformly between being pleased and disappointed, and a large part also said that they were not safe or are volunteers who had mixed opinions. But now, the division of the party line is promoting the numbers of the upper line in this question, which are supported by Trump.
In 2008, 46% of Republicans described themselves as satisfied with Obama’s planned nominees, a slightly higher participation than 36% in the Republican party that said they were disappointed.
In 2001, 28% of the Democrats said they were satisfied with Bush’s teams, a slightly lower participation than 32% who said they were disappointed.
The NBC News survey surveyed 1,000 registered voters from March 7 through a combination of telephone interviews and an online survey sent by text message. The margin of error is more or less 3.1 percentage points. This question about the Trump administration staff was asked an average sample of respondents, which means that the margin of error is more or less 4.4 percentage points.
