9/19/2018

ETHICS/POLLS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump loves to tout the fact that there has never been another president like him. When it comes to his ratings on ethics, he’s right. Gallup recently asked people to rate the ethical standards of Trump as compared to the seven men who held the office prior to him — so, all the way back to Richard Nixon. The results were stark: Trump was rated as less ethical than each of his predecessors, often by overwhelming amounts. Of the seven, Trump was judged by more than 50% of respondents to have lower ethical standards than six. The one outlier was, of course, Nixon, who was chased from office after the Watergate scandal was revealed. In spite of that, 43% said that Nixon had higher ethical standards than Trump, while 37% said Trump’s ethics were higher than Tricky Dick’s. So the current President is seen by the public as less ethical than the guy who resigned the presidency just ahead of a near-certain impeachment…And ethical standards don’t appear to be a purely partisan judgment. Nearly seven in 10 people said Ronald Reagan had higher ethical standards than Trump while almost six in 10 said the same of Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter.”

Chris Cillizza, “Donald Trump’s failing grade on ethics,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, September 19, 2018 9:04 pm