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SALT LAKE CITY — Utahns are nearly evenly split over how well President Donald Trump is doing his job, according to a new poll released Thursday.
The UtahPolicy.com poll found that 50 percent disapprove of Trump's job performance while 46 percent support the Republican president's actions since taking office in January.
That's similar to past results among Utahns and better than Trump is performing in national polls.
"I think Utahns feel pretty good about where the state is and their own personal situation. I think that rubs off on whoever is president," said UtahPolicy.com publisher LaVarr Webb, who writes a political column for the Deseret News.
Webb said Utah's GOP majority generally agrees with the president's agenda on health care, taxes and other issues despite what he termed the "sideshow" of some of Trump's statements, particularly on Twitter.
However, Webb said enough members of the Utah GOP are being turned off by Trump that his level of support isn't what it should be in one of the most Republican states in the nation.
"It's still not really great," Webb said, noting that 25 percent of Utah Republicans don't like Trump's performance, according to the poll, joining 96 percent of Democrats and two-thirds of unaffiliated voters.
Plus, the most intense response from Utahns to the president is from those who don't like what they see coming from the White House.
More than a third of voters polled, 38 percent, strongly disapprove of the president's job performance, twice as many as those who strongly approve. Just over a quarter, 27 percent, somewhat approve, while 12 percent somewhat disapprove.
Don Peay, a leader of Trump's campaign efforts in the state, said the confirmation of conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch was important long term for Utahns.
And they want to see more, he said.
"The majority of Utahns support the Trump agenda. It is now up to the Congress to get it implemented or the Republicans will lose the House and Senate in 2018," Peay said.
He said the deal struck by the president with Democrats to raise the nation's debt limit "shows leadership and his ability to get things done for the American people — who are tired of partisan politics."
The poll for the online political news source was conducted Aug. 30-Sept. 5 by Dan Jones & Associates of 608 registered Utah voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.97 percent.
In May, slightly more Utahns disapproved of Trump's job performance, 54 percent, but those who approved was about the same at 45 percent. Results were about the same in polls of voter opinions of Trump in March and in late May/early June.
Trump remains more popular in Utah than in the rest of the country. An average of recent polls compiled by RealClear Politics showed just a 39.6 percent job approval rating among Americans, with 56 percent disapproving.
In last year's presidential election, Trump won Utah with 45.5 percent of the vote. It was his smallest margin of victory despite Utah being one of the most Republican in the nation.
He finished a distant third in the March 2016 state Republican Party presidential preference caucus vote, behind the winner, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
University of Utah political science professor Matthew Burbank said the new poll shows that the state's voters remain less than enthusiastic about the Republican in the White House.
Trump's victory in Utah, a state that hadn't voted for a Democrat for president since 1964, was "not by a very convincing margin," Burbank said. "What we see largely is kind of a continuation of that attitude from Utahns."
