Record number cite poor leadership as US’s greatest problem: poll

More than a third of Americans say that poor leadership is the greatest problem facing America, the highest percentage ever recorded to say so, according to a poll released Monday.
A Gallup poll released on Presidents Day found that 35 percent of respondents say that poor leadership ranks as the most important problem in the country, edging out immigration or gun violence.
{mosads}The percentage is the highest ever recorded by Gallup and is a 2-point increase from the previous record set in 2013 during that year’s government shutdown. The number has been steadily increasing since President Trump took office in 2017, the pollsters noted, and ranked as Americans’ top concern all but two months last year.
Much of the increase has been among Republicans, where Gallup says there was a 14-point increase in the frequency of mentioning the government as the most important problem facing the U.S.
Both parties are about equally as likely now to name the government as America’s top issue, according to the poll, while independents were slightly less likely to name it as their top issue. Thirty-one percent of independents named government as the most pressing issue facing the U.S., compared to 37 percent of Democrats and 36 percent of Republicans.
Gallup’s poll contacted 1,016 adults living in all 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., for the poll, for which the margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
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