The “base” of support for president Donald Trump, a normally unmovable bloc of voters who have said they will stick him “not matter what,” now have second thoughts. A new National Public Radio/Public Broadcasting Service News Hour Pool by Marist College found Trump’s rating dropping by seven points,
More importantly, the loss comes heaviest among suburban men, whose allegiance to Trump dropped 18 percentage points.
Marist also found support for Trump dropping among evangelicals, Republicans and men without college degrees — the very coalition of voters that gave him the presidency in 2016.
Just ask retired Navy reservist Jeff Daudert, who voted for Trump in 2016.
“What the f–k were we thinking,” Daudert told Washington Post reporter Matt Viser outside a Walmart store in Macomb County, Mich. recently.
Daudert points to Trump’s role in shutting down portions of the federal government over his demand for a $5.7 billion wall between America and Mexico.
“It’s silly. It’s destructive,” says Daudert, who adds that he won’t be supporting Trump in 2020. “I was certainly for the anti-status quo [in 2016]. I’ll be more status quo next time.”
Same for Jeremiah Wilburn, 45, an operating engineer in Michigan.
“I was doing fine with Trump up until this government shutdown. It’s ridiculous. You’re not getting the wall build for $5 billon. Mexico is not paying for it, we all know that, too. Meanwhile, it’s starting to turn people like me away.”
Wilburn’s brother works for the Transportation Safety Administration in Florida and is among the hundreds of thousands of federal workers expected to work each day without pay.
“You can’t expect people to come to work without getting paid. I I were them, I certainly wouldn’t come to work,” he added.
At least 10 percent of the TSA workers failed to come to work this weekend across the country, causing problems for airport operations that are also strained by the government shutdown.
Claudette Anglin. 31, says she and her longtime boyfriend split over disagreements over Trump.
“I voted for Trump and supported him,” she said. “He didn’t. I lost him and now I’ve lost my self-respect for voting for a disaster like Trump. “
Erica McQueen, 38, voted for Trump and says he’s done some of the good things she expected from him.
“But it gets overshadowed by the stunts he pulls,” she says.
The wall and the shutdown are examples.
“The wall is getting out of hand. It’s too much. It’s ridiculous. I sick of seeing it. I’m sick of hearing about it.”
So she probably won’t be voting for Trump again.
“Something miraculous has to happen for me to vote for him again.”
Joey Thomas says he burned his Trump t-shirts and his “Make America Great Again” hat.
“God, I bought into that man’s bulls–t lock, stock and barrel,” says the 28-year-old machinist who lives in Montgomery County, Virginia. “I am gullible fool.”
Similar support for Trump is slipping among members of America’s military forces. A poll by Military Times find support sliding among active service members. His overall approval has slipped from a high of 46.1 percent to a current low of 43.8 while his overall disapproval has increased 16 points during the same period.
“I’m not proud to say I voted for the SOB in 2016,” says recently retired Navy specialist Ed Harnover. “That is a mistake that I will correct if he ever appears on a ballot again.”
In Washington, lockstep support for Trump is slipping among the Republicans who have backed him without question during most of the first two years of his presidency. GOP members now talk among themselves about whether or not they will support him in 2020. Some talk about finding “a viable Republican” to run against him in the primaries next year.
And the loss of support continues.
President Donald Trump is hemorrhaging support amid a political standoff over his proposed border wall that has resulted in the longest government shutdown on record, according to polls.
As the shutdown of about a quarter of the federal government lumbers toward its fifth week, the president even appears to be losing favor with his core constituents, whose support for Trump until this point has been rock-solid since the 2016 campaign.
Cracks even appeared in Trump’s seemingly impenetrable facade of overall Republican support: 83 percent of Republican respondents said they support the president in the most recent poll — down 7 points from the early December poll — while his disapproval in the party rose 3 points.
Trump has long touted the loyalty of his base, once telling supporters during the campaign that “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”
But after publicly telling Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that he would be “proud” to shut down the government in pursuit of funds to construct his long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, Trump has evidently had trouble selling his subsequent message that Democrats are responsible for the continued negotiating stalemate.
“It appears it might finally be the right time to openly talk about a ‘Dump Trump’ movement within the party,” says a senior aide to a GOP leader in the House. “That decision day is coming and it’s coming at breakneck speed.”
Copyright © 2019 Capitol Hill Blue
1 thought on “Trump’s ‘base’ starts to fade”
“At least 10 percent of the TSA workers failed to come to work this weekend across the country, causing problems for airport operations that are also strained by the government shutdown.”
This being the very same TSA that said last week, “Oh, no, everything’s fine…”
httpss://www.tsa.gov/news/releases/2019/01/15/tsa-statement-checkpoint-operations-january-15
Security Theatre meets “Noises Off”. J.
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