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After President Trump's most recent rhetoric about Charlottesville inflamed even more criticism, a handful of GOP lawmakers, including Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), are criticizing Trump directly, while others stay silent. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

Once upon a time, there were rumblings in Washington that Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) was under consideration as a potential secretary of state in the administration of President Trump. That didnt pan out and, in the months since Trumps inauguration, its become clear that this was for the best, as Corker has repeatedly criticized Trumps time in office.

In May, after The Post reported that Trump had revealed classified information to Russian officials in the Oval Office, Corker described the White House as being in a downward spiral. When Trump repeatedly bashed his own attorney general, former Alabama senator Jeff Sessions, Corker criticized the presidents behavior. On Thursday, after nearly a week of analysis of Trumps handling of the racial violence in Charlottesville, Corker released a new critique:

This is an unusual rebuke from a senator for a president from his own party. But polling from Quinnipiac University released Thursday makes clear that Corker isnt alone within his party in seeing his views of Trumps performance shift.

The Quinnipiac poll showed a slight improvement for Trump since the beginning of the month, with 39 percent of respondents saying that they view his presidency with approval. Nearly 6 in 10 hold a disapproving view.

Those numbers have increased over the seven months of Trumps presidency, with more than half of the country now strongly disapproving of how Trump is doing. On Jan. 26, Quinnipiac found that only 40 percent of the country strongly disapproved of Trump. The figure was never that low again.

To the point with Corker, that slip has been seen among Republicans as well. In early August, Trump hit two new lows: his lowest approval from Republicans and, interestingly, his lowest strong approval rating from members of his own party. Three-quarters of Republicans still thought he was doing a good job, just less strongly so.

The new poll shows some improvement, but his strong approval numbers from Republicans are the second-lowest in Quinnipiacs polling.

Since he took office, most Americans have been skeptical of Trumps personal characteristics as well. More than half the country views him as a strong person and intelligent, but only a minority agrees with other possible descriptors: that hes honest, that he cares about average Americans, that he shares our values, that hes levelheaded or that hes got good leadership skills.

Its on that last point that Trumps seen the biggest decline since inauguration a drop from about half the country thinking he was a good leader in late January to about 40 percent saying it now.

Among Republicans, the drop has been steeper. Views of his leadership ability rebounded from earlier this month, but theres still been a 13-point decline in how Republicans feel about Trumps ability to lead. On every other metric, too, fewer Republicans now say that they think Trump holds these positive qualities than they did shortly after he took office.

On no characteristic does Trump fare more poorly among Republicans than on whether hes levelheaded. Only 62 percent of members of his own party say that applies, while a third say it doesnt.

In other words, Corkers assessment that Trump has not been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence that he needs to be successful is a view thats held by a lot of other people in the Republican Party.

Read more from the original source:
Sen. Corker isn't the only Republican who's increasingly questioning Trump's stability - Washington Post