When the federal spending bill struggle began, Trump vacillated between insisting he wouldn’t sign it without at least five billion dollars for his border wall to saying he’d find other ways to get the money, including using military funding. Once extreme right-wing media figures like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter began ranting about how Trump would lose the support of his base if he backed down from the fight, Trump doubled down and shut down the government to try to get his way.
In an ironic twist, however, shutting down the government is actually losing Trump supporters, according to a newly-released CNN poll.
Trump’s approval rating has sunk to 37 percent, which is near his lowest point of 35 percent in November 2017 and February 2018. His disapproval rating went from 52 to 57 percent since the shutdown first began.
Despite Trump’s claims that Americans want the border wall and are satisfied with his decision to shut down the government in order to get it, only 39 percent of those polled agreed. A full 56 percent said that they were opposed to the idea.
Support for a border wall was far higher at the beginning of Trump’s run for the presidency after he announced his candidacy at the end of 2015. Since then, the idea has been weighed and deliberated and it appears that American voters are absorbing the message: the border wall is both unnecessary and ineffective.
Trump once claimed he would be “proud” to own the shutdown, that he would “take the mantle,” and that he wouldn’t blame Democrats if it happened. Since then, he shifted gears, as always. However, it hasn’t worked. 55 percent of those polled say that Trump is responsible while only 32 percent said that Democrats in Congress are.
Trump’s fear-mongering is also not working. A majority of Americans disagree that a crisis exists at the southern border. Of the 45 percent who do see it as a crisis, 29 percent say that a border wall would not be an effective measure of response.
The poll was also reflective of earlier polls. Trump’s supporters remain overwhelmingly white, male, and Republican. Women and all people of color overwhelmingly disapprove of the job he’s doing in the White House.
Featured image via Flickr by Gage Skidmore under a Creative Commons license
