Apr 16, 2020 - Politics & Policy

Poll: 65% of Americans say Trump was too slow to address coronavirus

Orion Rummler

In this image, Trump stands in front of a podium — President Trump at the White House on April 16. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

65% of Americans say that President Trump was too slow to take major steps to handle the threat of the novel coronavirus in the U.S., per a Pew Research Center survey released on Thursday.

Why it matters: Trump and his administration were repeatedly warned about how the virus would affect American lives and the economy, reporting from Axios, The New York Times, The Washington Post, AP and other media outlets has shown. Earlier action could have curbed the spread.

What they're saying: 47% of Republicans say criticizing the Trump administration for its response to the virus is acceptable, while 85% of Democrats say the same, per Pew.

66% of Americans are more concerned about state governments lifting social distancing and stay-at-home orders "too quickly" than "not quickly enough," Pew reports.
73% of Americans believe "the worst is still to come," while 26% believe the worst from the virus is over.

What's happening: 22 million jobless claims have been filed in the U.S. over the past four weeks, and the worst single-day death toll was marked on Wednesday with more than 2,400 fatalities reported within 24 hours.

Methodology: 4,917 adults from Pew's nationally representative American Trends Panel were surveyed April 7-12, with a margin of error of ± 2.1%.

Go deeper ... Timeline: How the U.S. fell behind on the coronavirus

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Poll: 65% of Americans say Trump was too slow to address coronavirus

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