Trump tops Hillary on economic and national defense issues, May 18-22, 2016 Gallup poll of 1530 adults nationwide-Gallup

May 18-22, 2016 poll, 1530 adults nationwide, cell phones and landlines, 60-40, 3% error margin

June 2, 2016, "Trump Leads Clinton on Top-Ranking Economic Issues," Gallup, Lydia Saad
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"If the race for president comes down to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, Trump could benefit from an edge in public confidence on the issues Americans are prioritizing most this election. A slight majority of Americans choose Trump as better able to handle the economy (53%) and jobs (52%), and 50% choose him -- versus 46% who choose Clinton -- on terrorism and national security....

These findings come from a May 18-22 Gallup poll in which U.S. adults were first asked to rate how important each of 17 prominent national issues will be to their vote for president this year, and then to say whether Clinton or Trump would best handle each issue. As Gallup reported previously, most of the issues Americans rate as highly important are economic and national defense-related. By contrast, most of the bottom eight involve social policy, trade and the environment. (See the full list in the table at the end of the story.)

Overall, Trump leads Clinton in public perceptions of who would better handle eight of the 17 issues. Beyond his modest leads on 

the economy (+10) and 
jobs (+7), and slight edge on 
terrorism (+4), 

he leads on several lower-ranked concerns: 

the federal budget deficit (+18), 
the size and efficiency of the federal government (+14), 
regulation of banks and Wall Street (+11),  
taxes (+8) and 
gun policy (+5)....

Trade, a relatively low-ranked election issue, is the one area where the candidates are tied....

Trump Leads on Higher-Profile Issues, but by Slimmer Margins

On average, 75% of Americans rate the eight issues Trump leads on as extremely or very important to their vote, slightly higher than the 67% who rate the eight issues Clinton leads on this highly....
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Bottom Line

More Americans prefer Trump than Clinton to handle the issues of utmost importance to voters this fall -- the economy in general as well as employment and jobs, specifically. More broadly, Trump's center of gravity on the issues is a little higher on the priority scale than Clinton's. On the other hand, the candidates are tied in the sheer number of issues on which each is preferred....

Survey Methods

Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted May 18-22, 2016, with a random sample of 1,530 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting.

Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 60% cellphone respondents and 40% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods."

View complete question responses and trends.



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