Poll: Trump and His Policies a Tough Sell in California

After the thrashing California voters gave Donald Trump in the November presidential election, they show no signs of warming up to him now that he's president.

In a new survey by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), about a third of Californians (31 percent of all adults, 35 percent of likely voters) approve of the job Trump is doing as president. That's up 1 percent poll from the last PPIC survey in February.

Or, as Arnold Schwarzenegger might say, "you're dying at the box office."

Not surprisingly, attitudes toward Trump break sharply along party lines, with 82 percent of Republicans approving of the president's performance, while 91 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of independents disapprove.

Nearly 60 percent of Californians asked disapprove when it comes to Trump's signature issues: building a wall by the Mexican border (72 percent disapprove) and banning travel from six mostly Muslim countries (58 percent disapprove).

Trump's overall tone on immigrants isn't resonating with Californians, said survey director Mark Baldassare.

"Californians feel that undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. should have a chance to apply for citizenship, they should be allowed to stay, and there's very little support for requiring that undocumented immigrants leave the country," said Baldassare. "As far as Californians are concerned, that issue was settled quite a while ago."

In fact, the PPIC survey found that 68 percent of Californians surveyed think undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. should be allowed to stay and eventually apply for citizenship -- even 46 percent of Republicans in California agree with that.

President Trump's positions on a wide range of issues "aren't consistent with where Californians are today," said Baldassare.

California officials are viewed much more favorably, with 61 percent of likely voters in the state giving Jerry Brown a thumbs up for the job he's doing as governor.

The governor fares better than the state's two U.S. senators. Fifty-one percent of likely voters approve of the job Sen. Dianne Feinstein is doing, with 39 percent disapproving.  (Note: The poll was conducted before Feinstein's high-profile role in the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch).

Meanwhile, freshman Sen. Kamala Harris wins approval from 49 percent of likely voters, while 25 percent say they don't know enough to have an opinion.