MEDIA/POLLS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Following a week of brutal headlines for the White House, a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll shows that explosive allegations from journalist Bob Woodward’s new book and an anonymous New York Times op-ed are affecting voters’ opinions of President Donald Trump’s executive branch. The majority of those polled, 61 percent, say the Trump administration is run chaotically, compared with 32 percent who say it is running well. Those are markedly worse numbers for the White House than in March, when 54 percent of respondents said the administration was running chaotically and 39 percent said it was running well. Voters’ perceptions seem to be fueled in part by an unknown senior administration official’s op-ed in the Times that purports that a ‘quiet resistance’ within Trump’s administration has banded together to ‘frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations,’ as well as to ‘preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses.’ Roughly 65 percent of those polled have heard ‘a lot’ or ‘some’ about the op-ed, and 42 percent of voters say that when Trump officials publicly criticize the president, it makes them more comfortable with how the administration is running. Only 37 percent say it makes them less comfortable.”
–Quint Forgey, “Poll: More say Trump running chaotic White House after Woodward book, op-ed,” Politico, September 12, 2018 6:09 am