Trump leaves on all-time low approval rating – but Republicans do NOT blame him for MAGA riot
Donald Trump leaves office on all-time low approval rating – but Republicans do NOT blame him for MAGA riot or accept Joe Biden as legitimate, new polls reveal
- Two new polls show Donald Trump leaving office at the lowest level of his popularity but with an iron grip on the Republican base
- SSRS for CNN puts him on 34% approval the lowest of his term
- But Washington Post / ABC poll shows Republicans refuse to blame him for MAGA riot and say party didn’t do enough to support him
- 70% of GOP voters say Biden did not win legitimately, but overall 62% of all voters say his victory was legitimate
- Republican voters also say he was not to blame for the Capitol riot, should be allowed to self-pardon, and do not want him convicted by Senate
Two polls Sunday showed Donald Trump leaving office on his lowest approval ratings from Americans but still with the overwhelming backing of his base for his actions in the wake of the MAGA riot.
An SSRS poll for CNN put Trump’s final approval rating at just 34%, the lowest of his presidency, and far behind Barack Obama’s final rating of 60%.
But a separate Washington Post/ABC News poll showed how Republicans refuse to blame Trump for the MAGA riot which caused his second impeachment, and still back his claims that Joe Biden is not a legitimate president.
The polls show some of the task facing Biden in the attempt to ‘unite America’ which will be the theme of his inauguration – an event itself held under unprecedented security, with 25,000 armed National Guard members, razor wire round the Mall and the White House, and crowds banned entirely.
Trump’s approval rating at the end of his single term put him in a minority of post-war presidents leaving office with approval under 40%.
Jimmy Carter left on 34%, Harry Truman had 32%, George W. Bush 31% and Nixon, in the polls before he resigned, 24%.
The CNN poll shows a mixed record for Trump on success versus failure.
A majority – 54% – say he was more of a success than a failure on the economy, but the numbers for race relations (34%), immigration (36%) and the coronavirus (36%) show how he could not capture support beyond his base.
But it is the Washington Post/ABC News results which show the grip he still has on Republican voters ahead of his second impeachment trial and Biden’s inauguration.
It found overwhelming support for Trump among those who say they voted Republican.
Fifty seven per cent say that the party should follow his leadership when he leaves office, and 51% say that party leaders did not go far enough in attempts to overturn the election results.
The party’s voters do not blame Trump for the MAGA riot for which he is being impeached, with 56% saying he was not to blame for the Capitol being stormed at all.
And 66% said that his overall conduct since the election had been ‘responsible.’
Those findings put the party’s supporters entirely out of step not just with Democrats but with majority opinion.
Just 27% of all voters think Republicans should follow Trump’s leadership.
The findings underline the difficulties Republican senators face with Trump’s impeachment trial.
Mob: Republican voters refuse to blame the president for the rioters who stormed the Capitol i his name and wearing his clothing
Convict or not? Trump’s grip on the base presents senators with a crisis
Those who face primary elections in 2022 or 2024 would face angry Republican voters and even the possibility of Trump himself campaigning against him, making a vote to convict politically difficult.
But if they vote against conviction to s
urvive a primary, at a general election they would face a Democratic rival determined to hang that voter around their necks as a mark of shame – and a general electorate to whom Trump is a pariah.
While Democratic voters favor Trump being convicted and banned from running for office again 89 to nine, Republicans oppose it 85 to 12. Among independents, it has 56% backing.
Similarly, Biden’s legitimacy is a matter of deep partisan divide: 62% of voters overall and more than 90% of Democrats say his election was legitimate.
But Trump was so successful in sowing distrust in the election that among Republican voters, 70% say Biden did not win legitimately.
A similar question in the SSRS/CNN poll saw 58% of Republicans say there was ‘solid evidence’ that Biden’s election win was fraudulent. And 75% of Republican respondents said that they had little confidence that elections reflect the will of the American people.
The possibility of Trump trying to pardon himself before he leaves office on Wednesday also divided opinion: 68% of all voters say he should not, but 59% of Republicans say he should.
A move to self-pardon would bring about a fresh constitutional crisis because it is unknown if it would be valid and many experts believe that new Biden Justice Department would be forced to prosecute him just to get a Supreme Court ruling on whether it is possible – then consider a constitutional amendment to explicitly rule it out if the justices say Trump was allowed to pardon himself.
