The Hill (“Most Americans say Trump is mentally, physically unfit to serve effectively: Poll“):
A new poll found that most Americans say they believe President Trump is mentally and physically unfit to serve as commander in chief.
The Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll found that 59 percent of U.S. respondents indicated Trump does not have the mental sharpness it takes to lead the country. Forty percent of respondents said the president is mentally equipped for leadership, and 1 percent of participants skipped the question.
Comparatively, 55 percent of surveyed U.S. adults said Trump is not in good enough physical health to serve as president, while 44 percent disagreed and 1 percent of survey participants skipped the question.
More than half of respondents, 54 percent, said they do not believe the president is a strong leader.
Sixty-seven percent of survey participants also said they don’t think Trump carefully considers important decisions.
Even in a polarized age, these are disturbing results. When three-fifths of the country thinks you’re mentally unfit to lead, it’s a problem.
Nor is the poll in question an outlier. A few weeks back, Peter Baker (“Trump’s Erratic Behavior and Extreme Comments Revive Mental Health Debate“) cited a whole slew of the President’s former allies raising concerns and noted:
A Reuters/Ipsos poll in February found that 61 percent of Americans think Mr. Trump has become more erratic with age and just 45 percent say he is “mentally sharp and able to deal with challenges,” down from 54 percent in 2023. Roughly half of Americans, 49 percent, deemed Mr. Trump too old to be president when asked in a YouGov poll in September, up from 34 percent in February 2024, while just 39 percent said he was not too old.
These numbers are comparable to the 65% in a June 2024 CBS/YouGov poll who believed President Joe Biden lacked “the mental and cognitive health to serve as President,” a number which declined to 72% at the end of the month, pursuant to a horrendous performance in the first general election debate. There is no Nancy Pelosi to push Trump out.
Interestingly, while I saw the WaPo poll when it came out two days ago, I didn’t pay it much attention owing to the headline, “Trump disapproval reaches new high, Post-ABC-Ipsos poll finds.” The result is highlighted in the report, but deep down, without an accompanying graphic. Talk about burying your lede!
Looking at the crosstabs, the responses are significantly better among Whites (50-50) but considerably worse among Blacks (85-14), Hispanics (72-27), and the 18-29 age group (69-31). A whopping 93 percent of Democrats say he’s mentally incompetent, compared to 32 percent of non-MAGA Republicans and only 4 percent of MAGA Republicans. A majority of every education background says he’s mentally incompetent; the most favorable, oddly, is those with “some college” (55-44).
It should be noted that public opinion on this matters not a whit, practically speaking. Unless Vice President Vance and a majority of the cabinet agree, this is not grounds for removal.
