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Donald Trump
President Donald Trump has been jawboning General Motors Co. over the past couple of days, in advance of a visit to Ohio — and in the wake of polls that suggest he could be in trouble with some of his strongest supporters.
In a barrage of tweets Sunday and Monday, Trump has leaned on GM GM, -0.22% to reopen its Lordstown, Ohio, manufacturing plant, saying he spoke to the company’s Chief Executive Mary Barra and declaring he didn’t care who was to blame, “I just want it open!”
See: Trump presses GM to reopen Ohio manufacturing plant.
Trump trounced Hillary Clinton in Ohio in 2016, thanks in part to the backing of working-class voters he courted. And it wasn’t just in Ohio: nationally, 51% of voters without a college degree supported Trump in 2016, versus 44% for Clinton, according to one exit poll.
As Trump revs up his 2020 campaign, however, there are warning signs from this group.
The president lost support during the recent government shutdown with white Americans who don’t have college degrees, a CNN poll found. Among that group, 45% said they approved of how Trump was doing as president, the lowest level of support among that subgroup in CNN surveys. The 35-day shutdown ended on Jan. 25.
Another poll taken during the shutdown, from Quinnipiac University, showed Trump’s approval among white voters without college degrees dropping from December. In March, it dropped further still.
Trump’s next visit to Ohio is scheduled for Wednesday, when he’ll tour the Lima Army Tank Plant.
The president’s tweets — and visit to a key Rust Belt state — come as the field of major Democratic presidential contenders is nearly settled, missing only Joe Biden as a declared candidate.
Biden and Trump would battle fiercely over white, working-class voters should the former vice president run and win the Democratic nomination. An announcement by Biden is expected soon; meanwhile, he leads the declared Democratic contenders in an average of polling from RealClearPolitics.
Democrats are also slamming Trump, with the Democratic National Committee blasting out an email to reporters on Monday saying that the president “won’t stand up for workers.”
