Poll Shows Most Americans Think Trump Puts His Business Interests First

A new poll shows that when it comes to his own business interests versus doing what’s good for the American people, most believe that President Donald Trump will usually prioritize growing his own pocketbook.

A Fox News poll published on Wednesday asked respondents who Trump thinks of most when it comes to his decision-making in the White House. Specifically, the poll asked whether Trump puts his personal business interests above those of the American people.

The results of the poll show that a majority of Americans don’t have much trust in Trump to look out for them. A majority — 52 percent — believe that Trump always or often puts his personal business interests above the American people’s. Only 43 percent said that he sometimes, rarely, or never does so.

While citizens are incapable of knowing the true motivations of Trump’s policy decisions, there is clear evidence that he is profiting from his time in office so far. According to reporting from CNBC, Trump and members of his family are earning hundreds of millions of dollars while he’s in office.

Trump didn’t dissolve his business or put it into a private trust when he assumed office — moves that previous presidents had done before they were inaugurated. As such, Trump, his daughter Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, earned more than $500 million, according to their most recent government filing statements.

We’ve lost track of the number of times we’ve had to ask whether Jared and Ivanka are prioritizing their business interests over the public’s interest. https://t.co/SOSk0i4crk

— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) December 13, 2018

There are specific instances where Trump’s businesses have thrived due to his presidency as well — including one example where Saudi government lobbyists reserved a number of Trump International Hotel rooms in Washington, D.C., after he won the 2016 presidential election. The purchasing of those rooms were worth more than $270,000, and caused some to question whether a conflict of interest arose as a result, according to reporting from the Washington Post.

The Fox News poll also asked other questions of respondents. On the issue of how well of a job Trump is doing so far, 46 percent said they approve of his job performance, while 52 percent said they disapprove.

Respondents were also skeptical of Trump’s recent claims that his trade deals have been beneficial for the nation. On the question on the revised trade deal with Canada and Mexico, replacing NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) with USMCA (the United States, Mexico, and Canada Agreement), just 40 percent of Americans said that the change in trade deals is favorable to our nation’s interests. Forty-seven percent said that the revised trade deal wasn’t a successful change to help the country.