Registered voters are skeptical about information coming from the executive branch as President Donald Trump undergoes treatment for COVID-19 — a doubt that began nearly as soon as the president announced his diagnosis on Friday.
White House physician Sean Conley initially told the public that the president was only experiencing mild coronavirus symptoms — but since acknowledged on Sunday that the president has experienced a high fever, received supplemental oxygen twice, and was given an anti-inflammation steroid. The president’s doctors have indicated that he could return to the White House as early as Monday.
A Yahoo News/YouGov Poll conducted October 2 – 3 indicates that amid the varying early descriptions of President Trump’s health, about half of registered voters do not trust the president (52%) or the White House (49%) to provide accurate updates on his coronavirus treatment. The poll was mostly completed before Saturday’s controversy over when Trump was diagnosed, as well as before details of his treatment were released.
A majority of Democrats (79%) and Independents (53%) do not trust that the White House will be honest about his condition, compared to just 10% of Republicans. Almost three-quarters (73%) of those likely to vote for the GOP have faith that the White House is telling the truth.
Related: Most voters blame President Trump’s own actions and attitude for his COVID-19 infection
See the crosstabs from this Yahoo News/YouGov Poll
Methodology: This Yahoo News survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,202 U.S. registered voters interviewed online from October 2 - 3, 2020. The sample were weighted according to gender, age, race and education based on the American Community Survey, conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, as well as 2016 presidential vote, registration status, geographic region and news interest. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S registered voters. The margin of error is 4.6%.
Image: Getty
