In new polling from CBS News and YouGov that was completed on August 18, more respondents who were identified as likely Republican primary voters generally believed what Trump was saying than those who similarly trusted religious leaders.
Conservatives aligned with Trump are generally known as religious, specifically adhering to conservative Christianity — but their trust trends elsewhere. With Donald Trump, 53 percent from those respondents said they believe what he’s saying is generally true, while an additional 25 percent identified him as “mistaken” but attempting to relay the truth. Religious leaders? Only 44 percent from this same subset of the survey’s participants thought they were generally telling the truth, and the portion believing these figures to be “mistaken” reached 39 percent.
There was a third category in the polling in which respondents could place a subject if they felt their statements were lies. For medical scientists, trust was even lower. A full 29 percent thought that these individuals were, in general, actively lying, while an additional 39 percent believed such persons were mistaken in much of their commentary. Characteristically, those from the same group who said they believed that President Joe Biden actively lied comprised 79 percent of the total, despite the lack of evidence for such a pattern of intentional misrepresentations of reality.
Many Republican primary voters are sticking with Trump despite his now four criminal cases across the state and federal levels, and the former president remains the front-runner in the GOP presidential primary ahead of next year. Recently, there’s been a narrative that fellow contender Vivek Ramaswamy is surging, but what that means in practice is that this politically inexperienced businessman is sometimes cracking double digits — not exactly a commanding showing. There also remains a curious hesitance from many purported challengers of Trump’s to actually directly condemn him, which observers would expect from figures claiming to be trying to win the nomination over the infamous front-runner. The first debate in the GOP primary contest will be held this week, but Trump is not expected to participate.
