The GOP’s Pressure Point: Polls Show Public Blames Trump for Shutdown
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The GOP’s Pressure Point: Polls Show Public Blames Trump for Shutdown

KEVIN LAMARQUE

Polls show voters largely blame President Trump for the shutdown, and don’t favor the wall he wants to build even as they agree that there’s a crisis or at least a problem at the border with Mexico.

In a Reuters-Ipsos poll released Tuesday, 51 percent of respondents said that Trump “deserves most of the blame” for the shutdown, up four percentage points from a similar poll in late December. Just under a third of respondents blamed congressional Democrats.

  • The poll also found that 35 percent of adults support a spending bill that includes funding for the wall, and only 25 percent support the president’s decision to keep the government closed until Congress approves funding for a wall. The poll of 2,203 U.S. adults was conducted from January 1 to 7 and has a credibility interval or 2 percentage points.

A Politico/Morning Consult poll conducted January 4 to 6 found that 47 percent of registered voters say Trump is mostly to blame for the shutdown, compared to 33 percent who blame Congressional Democrats and 5 percent who point to congressional Republicans. The poll also found that 42 percent call the border situation a crisis, while another 37 percent say the U.S. has “a problem” at the border.

  • The public is split on the issue of a border wall, with 47 percent opposed and 44 percent supporting construction. Among Republicans, though, 72 percent say the nation faces a crisis at the border and 82 percent support Trump’s wall.
  • Even so, nearly two-thirds of voters polled said that the president should not shutdown the government to achieve his goals. The poll surveyed 1,989 registered voters and has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

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