Poll: Majority says Trump is a successful businessman

A majority of registered voters believes President Trump is a successful businessman despite recent news reports about significant losses, according to a new Politico/Morning Consult poll released Wednesday.

About 54 percent of respondents said they believe Trump has been successful in his business ventures, while 36 percent say he’s been unsuccessful. Another 10 percent have no opinion. 

{mosads}The results are starkly divided along partisan lines, with 85 percent of Republicans saying Trump is a success while only 30 percent of Democrats agreed. Nearly half, 49 percent, of independents said Trump is a successful businessman, while 34 percent say he’s been unsuccessful. 

The poll was conducted after the release of a New York Times report showing that Trump reported over $1 billion in losses from 1985 to 1994, citing IRS documents. Trump responded, calling the article “a highly inaccurate Fake News hit job” and saying that declaring such losses was common among real estate developers at the time.

When the poll’s respondents were given the information from the article, 43 percent said Trump has been successful and 41 percent said he’s been unsuccessful. 

The president made his career in business a focal point of his 2016 campaign, saying his success showed that he could pull off deals that nobody else could make, and that he’s well-versed in the ins and outs of global finance.

The Politico/Morning Consult survey interviewed 1,995 adult registered voters from May 10-12 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.