It’s time once again to play pick your poll. Let’s start with the one Trump will like — and not dismiss out-of-hand as “fake news.” A fresh Morning Consult/Politico survey measures majority or plurality support for every Trump executive order they polled. The three that garner a majority are withholding federal funding from sanctuary cities (55/33), temporarily banning travel for most people seeking to enter America from seven majority-Muslim nations (55/38), and suspending new federal regulations (54/33). Also popular are orders pertaining to the unraveling of Obamacare and construction of two pipelines delayed by the Obama administration:
One of the closer splits comes on the reinstatement of a modernized Mexico City Policy, under which federal tax dollars cannot pay for overseas abortions. When the order was framed that way by Marist’s pollster, support for the action reached super-majority levels. All in all, these numbers represent decent political news for the Trump administration, which has been dogged by endless media criticism over the content and roll-outs of many of these policies — some of which I believe has been justified. We are yet again reminded that loud pockets of urban and elite outrage do not necessarily reflect, and in some cases do not at all reflect, widespread public opinion. But wait, Quinnipiac’s new national poll finds Americans narrowly opposed (46/51) to the travel ban:
US Voters Oppose #ImmigrationBan National Poll Finds; Big Gender Gap As Voters Disapprove Of #PresidentDonaldTrump https://t.co/GwQBrL5iBX pic.twitter.com/Dh2SCz1kKU
— Quinnipiac Poll (@QuinnipiacPoll) February 7, 2017
Trump’s job approval is underwater at (42/51), with most Americans holding negative views of his character and handling of major issues. One big exception: The economy, on which Trump is right-side-up by three points. A majority of men approve of the president’s job performance; a larger majority of women disapprove. Issue by issue, it’s striking how different the results are from the Quinnipiac and Politico surveys, with the former being much less favorable to Trump and Republicans overall. The Q-poll nevertheless finds strong approval (+20) for Trump’s selection of Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court, with a very large majority (+40) of respondents saying that Democrats should permit a vote on the nomination (even as most give a thumbs-down to Republicans’ use of the Biden/Schumer Rule against Merrick Garland. I’ll leave you with this:
NEW POLL: Trump administration seen as more truthful than news media https://t.co/eLI74n8AdM pic.twitter.com/VuRyHB42JV
— The Hill (@thehill) February 8, 2017
UPDATE – Right on cue, Trump tweets out a key finding of the MC/Politico poll:
'Immigration Ban Is One Of Trump's Most Popular Orders So Far' pic.twitter.com/wAelwuQ4BE
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 8, 2017
Source: Townhall
