What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls - Week Ending June 30, 2018

Democrats are still trying to come to grips with the fact that Donald Trump won the 2016 election, and his second nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court is likely to send them further out into orbit.

Interestingly, though, just 40% of voters think the country would be better off if Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton had won in 2016, and 47% disagree.

Still, most voters across the political spectrum remain angry at the policies of the federal government and the media.

Most are also concerned that Trump’s opponents or those mad about the media’s coverage of the president will resort to violence. In fact, 31% now think the United States is likely to have a second civil war in the next five years.

Throw into that mix the finding that 51% of voters agree with a Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Wisconsin that Democrats are now a party “pickled in identity politics and victimology.”

But 51% also believe Trump is to blame for the bad media coverage he gets. Only 40%, however, think it’s possible for the president to do anything the media will approve of anyway.

Trump’s daily job approval rating appeared to be rebounding at week’s end after dropping to 45%, the lowest level since March, following the illegal immigrant children controversy.

Now that Gallup has quit the field, Rasmussen Reports is the only nationally recognized public opinion firm that still tracks President Trump's job approval ratings on a daily basis. If your organization is interested in a weekly or longer sponsorship of Rasmussen Reports' Daily Presidential Tracking Poll,  please send e-mail to [email protected] .

The latest Rasmussen Minute takes a closer look at the "separation anxiety” that’s driving the latest immigration spat. Most voters blame the parents of the separated children at the border, not the federal government.

Despite the president’s efforts to toughen border enforcement, voters still think it’s easier for illegal immigrants to get into the United States and stay here than in much of the rest of the world.

Fifty-four percent (54%) think it’s better for the United States to tightly control who comes into the country, but 48% feel the government is not doing enough to secure the country’s borders.

The U.S. Supreme Court which handed down some major wins for conservatives and the Trump administration in the closing weeks of this term now earns its highest approval ratings in several years. Trump’s first choice for the high court, Neil Gorsuch, was a deciding vote.

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his resignation this week at the term’s end. This is expected to lead to a political battle of spectacular proportions as the president and Senate Republicans push for a replacement that Democrats fear could change the direction of the court for a generation. Rasmussen Reports will offer its first numbers on the replacement battle next week.

Democrats still hold a slight lead on the Rasmussen Reports Generic Congressional Ballot.

Trump is now scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland on July 16. Thirty-four percent (34%) see a Trump-Putin summit as bad for America, but slightly more (38%) disagree.

In other surveys last week:

-- Forty-three percent (43%) of voters think the country is headed in the right direction. That finding ran in the mid- to upper 20s most weeks during President Obama’s last year in office.

-- Just over half of all Americans think most Americans play video games too much.

-- Thirty-seven percent (37%) say they have watched or will watch at least some of the 2018 World Cup. 

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Remember, if it's in the news, it's in our polls.