Poll: Most Americans Want Congress to Work with Trump

Democrats are placing all their chips on an investigate-and-obstruct strategy with President Trump, but most U.S. voters would rather see them work with him, according to a new Rasmussen poll. They also think Trump should be setting the agenda, not Speaker Pelosi.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 52% of Likely U.S. Voters feel it is better for the country if Congress works with Trump most of the time. Thirty-nine percent (39%) disagree and say it’s better if Congress opposes the president most of the time.  These findings are unchanged from January of last year, but the number who thought it better for the two to work together is down from 56% in January 2017 just before Trump took office.

The most important issue voters want Congress to address is illegal immigration, but there is very little confidence that Trump and the Democratic majority will be able to work together on the issue. A plurality of voters (47 percent) believes Trump should “should set the direction of the country for the next two years” while thirty-three percent believe Pelosi should be in charge. According to Rasmussen, “these attitudes haven’t changed since the end of last year following the Democrats’ election takeover of the House of Representatives.”

While Trump’s approval ratings are historically low, Congress would kill for his approval ratings. A mere 20 percent of voters give Congress a good or excellent performance rating. A majority of Republicans and unaffiliated voters rate Congress poorly, but only thirty-four percent of Democrats do.

It’s clear from this poll that the Democrat base is behind their strategy of investigating Trump to obstruct his agenda, but most Americans, including independent voters, want to see legislative progress. Donald Trump best strategy going forward is to keep running against Congress and the gridlock—a strategy that Obama employed. Trump, unlike his predecessor, has shown a willingness to work with Democrats, whereas Obama spent the majority of his presidency not even bothering with Congress by implementing his agenda via unconstitutional executive actions.

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Matt Margolis is the author of The Scandalous Presidency of Barack Obama and the bestselling The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. His new book, Trumping Obama: How President Trump Saved Us From Barack Obama’s Legacy, will be published in July 2019. You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattMargolis