Trump's approval has been tracking downward since March, new polls find

• US President Donald Trump's approval rating is down to 43.4%, after a slight decrease last month.
• The decrease coincided with his administration's handling of the novel coronavirus, which most people disapprove of, recent polling analysis by FiveThirtyEight shows.
• According to the poll, fears of catching the novel coronavirus and its effects on the economy are top of mind for Americans.
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US President Donald Trump's approval rating is down to 43.4%, a slight decrease since the beginning of March, according to poll trackers by FiveThirtyEight.

The decrease coincides with the president's handling of the novel coronavirus, which most people disapprove of, according to FiveThirtyEight's recent analysis of more than 200 surveys.

Trump's favorability has improved since the impeachment trials last year, but the recent findings seem to track with people's concerns for the economy and personal fears that they'll catch the virus, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the US death count nears 80,000, and unemployment has reached Great Depression lows.

Approval is ticking downward

Disapproval for the administration's coronavirus response saw an uptick after the first week in April when US deaths surpassed 10,000, according to FiveThirtyEight's analysis of the surveys. As of Sunday, only 43.5% approved, down from a high of almost 50% at the end of March.

A vast majority of Republicans approve of the president's job, however, compared to roughly 39% of independents and 13% of Democrats.

In one of the polls included in FiveThirtyEight's report, the majority (53%) said they disapproved of Trump's overall job as president ⁠— a number that's increased by 4 percentage points since the end of March in that sample.

Almost 60% also said they thought the country was heading in the wrong direction and thought their respective governors were doing a better job of handling the coronavirus outbreaks.

Several surveys indicate that people are still afraid of catching the virus, even as localized shutdowns persist.

Another survey in FiveThirtyEight's report found that the vast majority of over 500 respondents was concerned about infection, though that number decreased from last month's highs.

Most also disapproved of Trump's performance in that survey, and believe it's too soon to reopen the country, which the president has said he'd like to do on short order.

Economy anxieties are on the rise

Notably, the vast majority of Americans (86.6%) are concerned about the virus' effect on the US economy, most of whom are "very concerned," according to the report.

Economic anxiety worsened as soon as the first death was reported in March. Ever since, it's increased in tandem with record numbers of workers filing for unemployment and states shutting down nonessential businesses, according to FiveThirtyEight.

One recent poll asked respondents whether they were more worried about the pandemic's effects on people or the economy, a subject of much debate, especially in conservative circles. A slight majority among nearly 900 surveyed said they were more worried about the economy.

But another with more than 1,500 participants showed that more people thought we should wait several months or a year, even though they tended to think the economy would take a long time to recover.

In both surveys, most respondents said they disapproved of Trumps' handling of coronavirus outbreaks.

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