Politics

It’s unclear whether striking the word “affordable” from the Republican healthcare reform act was the cause for the lackluster public response – but the numbers, contrary to some of our polling peers, show little confidence in Speaker Ryan’s plan for the repeal and replace of Obamacare. Reuters will be releasing the exact numbers on this in the next 24 hours, so we encourage everyone to look out for that.

Pocketbook issues continue to dominate the public’s primary concerns this week by rating the economy as the number one issue of concern. For the first time in a number of weeks, healthcare has overtaken terrorism as a key issue of concern for the general public.

In the latest Core Political release of the Reuters/Ipsos poll President Trump’s approval remains essentially unchanged. His job disapproval (48%) remains slightly higher than his approval (46%).

A majority of Britons say Donald Trump should have been invited for an official state visit although should not give a speech in parliament.

The biggest takeaway from this week’s Ipsos Core Political Data is that the direction of the state is essentially unchanged from last week. President Trump’s approval rating is the same, 45% of all Americans approve and 50% disapprove of the job he is doing as Commander in Chief. As with previous Ipsos data on this point, there is a sharp party divide with 19% of Democrats approving of the job, and 79% disapproving. On the Republican side, 82% approve of Trump’s handling of the job, while 16% disapprove. Among Independents 39% support – and 53% oppose.

South Africans appear disheartened by the country's political leadership, according to the latest eNCA / Ipsos Approval Ratings poll. The poll canvassed 3,416 adult South Africans between 25 October and 28 November 2016*.

President Donald Trump sees his job approval ratings underwater in the Reuters/Ipsos poll for the first time since assuming office with 50% of the public disapproving of his performance. The data indicates that all the furor around foreign policy is not playing to what the public perceives are his strengths, which remain the economy and jobs.

Brazilians started 2017 as they finished 2016: without trust in the country's direction. For 88% of the population, Brazil continues on the wrong direct - an index that has been intact since the very start of Michel Temer's Government (then interim) in April last year.

Three weeks into President Trump’s administration and we seem to have hit a rough equilibrium. While Donald Trump remains the least popular president to take office, his supporters have held with him and the country remains evenly split.