WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
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AUTHOR:M.J.GDNUS
President Donald Trump's approval rating has fallen to its lowest level since his return to the White House as Americans show signs of caution about his efforts to expand his power, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Monday.
About 42% of respondents in the six-day survey approve of Trump's job performance as president, down from 43% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll three weeks earlier and from 47% in the hours after his inauguration on Jan. 20.
Aggressive expansion of presidential powers
Trump's early days in office have left his political opponents stunned as he has signed dozens of executive orders extending his influence to both government agencies and private institutions such as universities and law firms.
While Trump’s approval rating remains higher than that of his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden for much of his presidency, the Reuters/Ipsos poll suggests that many Americans are uncomfortable with his punishing universities deemed too liberal and appointing the head of the Kennedy Center, a major theater and cultural institution in Washington.
Americans want the president to respect court decisions
About 83% of the 4,306 respondents said the US president must respect federal court decisions even if he doesn’t want to. Trump administration officials could face contempt charges for violating a federal judge’s order blocking deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members who have not had a chance to challenge their deportation.
Fifty-seven percent — including a third of Republicans — disagreed with the statement that “it is okay for a US president to withhold funding from universities if he disagrees with the way a university is run.”
Trump, who claims universities are failing to combat anti-Semitism on campuses, has frozen vast sums of federal money earmarked for American colleges, including more than $2 billion for Harvard alone.
Opposition to political control of cultural institutions
A similar share of respondents - 66% - said they did not think the president should control leading cultural institutions such as national museums and theaters. Last month, Trump ordered the Smithsonian, a vast museum and research complex that is the leading showcase for American history and culture, to remove "inappropriate" ideology.
On a range of issues, from inflation and immigration to taxation and the rule of law, the Reuters/Ipsos poll found that Americans who disapproved of Trump's actions outnumbered those who supported him on every question in the poll. On immigration, 45% of respondents approved of Trump's actions, but 46% disapproved.
The poll had a margin of error of about 2 percentage points.
America's Global Reputation Under Threat and Opposition to a Third Term
About 59% of respondents - including a third of Republicans - said America is losing credibility on the global stage.
Three-quarters of respondents said Trump should not run for a third term - a path Trump has said he would like to take, even though the U.S. Constitution prohibits him from doing so. A majority of Republican respondents - 53% - said Trump should not run for a third term.
