July 3 (UPI) — Seven in 10 Americans believe the political tone has become less civil since Donald Trump became president in January, according to a PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll.
In the poll conducted among 1,205 adults from June 21-25, 20 percent said the overall tone and level of civility in Washington between Republicans and Democrats has stayed the same and 6 percent said it has improved.
In a July 2009 poll, taken the same amount of time after Barack Obama left office, 35 percent said it had gotten worse, 42 percent stayed the same and 21 percent improved. That poll was conducted by the Gallup Organization for USA Today.
Broken down by party in the latest poll, 81 percent of Democrats say the civility of discourse has gotten worse compared with 65 percent of Republicans and 70 percent of independents.
By gender, the results are similar — 69 percent of men and 72 percent of women say it is worse.
In another question, 37 percent said they trust the Trump administration (14 percent a great deal and 23 percent a good amount) but 61 don’t have trust (20 percent not very much and 41 percent not at all).
By party affiliation, 84 percent of Republican respondents trust the president compared with 2 percent of Democrats and 28 percent of independents.
But 68 percent of Americans don’t trust Congress or the media in separate responses.
Six percent of them have a great deal of trust in the Congress, 23 percent say they have a good amount of trust in it, 46 percent not very much and 22 percent not at all.
For the media, 8 percent have a great deal of trust, 22 percent a good amount, 31 percent not very much and 37 percent not at all.
Also, 61 percent of respondents said they don’t trust polls.
The survey has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.
