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Keller @ Large: Poll Shows President Trump Lacks Support From Women

BOSTON (CBS) - There's bad news for President Trump in the latest national polling, with record-high disapproval ratings and strong support for the Mueller Russia probe.

But in the polling crosstabs there's an even more troubling sign for the president. It's the accelerating backlash against him by the voter group that has dominated every presidential election since 1980, and promises to be a key bloc in the upcoming midterms -- women.

"Factories are reopening, jobs are pouring back into the United States," said Mr. Trump at his rally in Indiana last night. And while you might quarrel with some of the president's claims, one thing is beyond dispute - the economy is humming with record-low unemployment.

President Trump
President Donald Trump. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

And while that rally featured plenty of female Trump fans, outside the hall, a new Washington Post/ABC News poll shows, they're in short supply.

The survey finds men disapprove of the president's job performance by a 54 to 42 percent margin. But among women, his support has cratered, with an eye-popping 66 percent disapproving while only 30 percent approve, a 24-percent gender gap.

That's double the gender gap afflicting Mr. Trump during his first year in office and more than triple the gap suffered by the last Republican president, George W. Bush, at a comparable point in his first term.

Female voter behavior has often been tied to the economy. So with boom times here, why are women still so widely anti-Trump?

The poll shows an ever starker gender gap over the president's handling of the economy. Men approve of his work by a 15-point margin. But a solid majority of women disapprove. Why?

Whether it's concern over fallout from White House trade policies or findings like the 64% of women who think a crime occured when Mr. Trump allegedly directed his lawyer to pay off women who claimed they had affairs with him, the president's relationship with female voters is heading south, fast.

The gender gap in the 2016 election was the widest ever, but it stood to reason that the new president had a chance to make up ground with women. So far, that isn't happening.

And that's why the female vote will be one of the most interesting details of the exit polling on election night this November.

Share your thoughts with me via email at keller@wbztv.com, or use Twitter, @kelleratlarge.

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