The U.S. Public Simply Doesn't Trust Donald Trump

Donald Trump's job approval numbers have been upside-down since he took the oath of office. Currently, there's a 15 or 16 point gap between those who approve of the job he's doing and those who disapprove -- a negative gap.

Part of it is his regressive agenda -- building a wall, peopling his administration with family-lobbyists-Wall Street and corporate magnates, trying to take healthcare away from Americans, wanting to give the rich and corporations huge new tax cuts, and failing to fix the nation's infrastructure (among numerous other unpopular things).

Another part is his foreign policy blunders. They have seen him argue with our allies, while buddying up to Putin -- and they don't understand doing either.

But perhaps the biggest thing that keeps his approval numbers upside-down is that the American public just doesn't trust him. About 57% of the public says Trump is not honest (20 points more than think he is) -- and 52% say he's a liar (12 points more than think he's not).

Trump has tried to fight this by attacking the media. He wants Americans to think it's not him lying, but the media making up "fake" stories about him. But that isn't working. As the chart below shows, a substantial majority of Americans trust the media more than they trust Trump.

There's an old saying that when you find yourself in a hole, you should stop digging. Trump seems incapable of that. He keeps piling lie upon lie -- verifying the public's poor opinion of his honesty.

These charts reflect information in a new Public Policy Polling survey -- done between July 14th and 17th of a random national sample of 836 registered voters, with a 3.4 point margin of error.