Rural Voters Like Trump - Urban/Suburban Voters Don't

The chart above is interesting. It shows that while the public as a whole don't approve of the job Trump is doing, and that's reflected in both urban and suburban areas, the same is not true of rural inhabitants. Those living in rural areas do approve of Trump -- by a 14 point margin (54% to 40%).

I wonder how long that's going to last though. The Trump agenda will be devastating to rural communities. If Trumpcare is passed, it could result in many rural people losing their insurance -- both Medicaid and private insurance (as premiums rise because of the smaller pool of people who can afford to buy insurance). Many rural hospitals were saved by Obamacare, because Medicaid paid them for many of their poor patients. Trumpcare won't do that, and it could cause many rural hospitals to close -- forcing patients to have to drive 50-100 or more to get hospital care.

And Trump's proposed budget would also be bad for rural communities. He wants to cut the Agriculture Department by a substantial amount -- a move that would negatively affect rural communities. And those communities would also suffer by cuts to programs that help the poor. Many people think poverty is just an urban problem, but that is not true. Poverty is a serious problem in many rural communities, and in those communities, even small cuts to government programs (food stamps, school lunches, housing assistance, etc.) would put many rural inhabitants struggling just to provide a subsistence level of survival.

Trump is popular in rural areas right now, but if he gets his agenda passed, that approval could disappear by the 2018 or 2020 elections.

The chart above reflects the results of a recent Washington Post / Kaiser Family Foundation Poll -- done between April 13th and May 1st of a random national sample of 1,070 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.