A year later, support in Trump counties craters as voters admit America is "worse off"

Just 32 percent of voters in flipped counties “believe the country is better off now than it was before Trump became president,” according to a new NBC/WSJ poll. A plurality, 41 percent, says the country is “worse off” one year later.

The poll sampled residents in more than 400 counties that either flipped from voting Democratic in the 2012 presidential election to Republican last year, or saw a significant surge for Trump last year.

The counties in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin, are generally “whiter, more rural, less educated and older than the nation as a whole,” according to NBC.

In order words, they represent Trump’s base, and they’re not impressed with his presidency.

Trump received especially bad marks among “Trump county” voters for helping to unite the country (60 percent are dissatisfied) and improving the U.S. health care system (59 percent dissatisfied).

The findings are just the latest in a mountain of polling data released in the last week that suggest the Trump presidency is in a slow-motion collapse, and that the revelations of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation have gravely damaged Trump.

His overall approval rating continues to hit new lows in poll after poll (Fox News, NBC/WSJ, ABC News, CNN), as more and more independent voters flee Trump. According to the recent ABC poll, Trump’s approval rating dropped to 37 percent, the lowest of any president at this point in office since 1946.

The Russia investigation that continues to envelope the White House appears to driving Trump’s falling fortunes. More Americans are paying attention to the story and think it’s morphing into a very big deal. In fact, 64 percent believe the Russia scandal is “a serious matter that should be fully investigated,” according to a recent CNN poll.

Additionally, 59 percent believe Trump knew that some people “associated with his campaign had contact with suspected Russian operatives.”

Trump’s strategy in recent weeks, to distract from the Russia scandal by trying to criminalize Hillary Clinton, appears to be a colossal flop, as more and more Americans tell pollsters that Trump is a failure, and the country’s worse off for having him in the White House.