Outside the Beltway

Yet Another Poll Shows Majority Disapproval Of Trump’s Muslim Travel Ban

Doug Mataconis · Wednesday, February 8, 2017 · 4 comments

Another poll shows that a majority of Americans oppose President Trump’s Executive Order barring most travel to and from the United States from seven majority Muslim countries:

A majority of U.S. voters disapprove of President Donald Trump’s recent actions on immigration, according to a new poll released Tuesday.

The Quinnipiac University survey shows 51 percent of voters oppose Trump’s executive order suspending travel from seven predominately Muslim countries to the U.S., 60 percent oppose suspending all refugee programs, and 70 percent oppose indefinitely barring Syrian refugees from emigrating to the U.S.

Overall, a 51-percent majority of voters disapprove of the way Trump is handling his job as president, while 42 percent approve. In the previous Quinnipiac poll, conducted over the first five days of Trump’s presidency, 36 percent approved of Trump’s performance, and 44 percent disapprove.

The Quinnipiac survey is the latest poll conducted by live phone interviewers to show little support for Trump and many of his early initiatives. Trump’s poll numbers are stronger in surveys conducted online.

Trump is deeply polarizing, the Quinnipiac poll shows. While 88 percent of Republicans approve of his job performance, 90 percent of Democrats disapprove. Independents tilt against Trump: 38 percent approve, and 53 percent disapprove.

The same cleavages that dominated last year’s election — race, gender and educational attainment — continue to divide voters. Fifty percent of male voters approve of Trump’s job performance, but only 35 percent of female voters do.

More white voters approve of Trump (48 percent) than disapprove (44 percent), while only 25 percent of nonwhites approve of his job performance. But among white voters, only 40 percent of those with a college degree approve of Trump’s handling of his job, compared to 56 percent of those without a college diploma.

Of Trump’s executive actions on immigration, all are opposed by majorities of voters. But there is less opposition to suspending travel from the seven nations — 46 percent support, 51 percent oppose — than for pausing the U.S.’s refugee programs.

Voters also aren’t convinced that the immigration orders are necessary steps. Only 38 percent think the order will make the nation more safe, virtually equivalent to the 39 percent who think it will make the U.S. less safe. More than two-in-10 voters, 21 percent, don’t think it will affect the safety of the nation.

And the orders appear to have moved public opinion on broader immigration policy slightly away from Trump’s corner. A month ago, a Quinnipiac poll found that 48 percent of voters said they supported “suspending immigration from ‘terror-prone’ regions, even if it means turning away refugees from those regions,” while 42 percent opposed that suspension.

But in the new poll the percentage who oppose an immigration suspension has jumped to 50 percent, while only 44 percent support it.

Given the manner in which the order has been implemented, not to mention the fact that it has been the subject of numerous largely successful court challenges, this is hardly surprising.