Breaking: 2 Out Of 3 GOP Voters Support Donald Trump’s Muslim Ban

Donald Trump’s possibly unconstitutional proposal banning all Muslims from entering the U.S. is helping, not hurting him with GOP voters.

Two out of three likely Republican primary voters – 65 percent – support Donald Trump‘s call to ban all Muslims from entering the United States. And more than one third, 37 percent, say his proposed ban makes them more likely to vote for him, according to a just-released Bloomberg Politics/Purple Strategies PulsePoll.

“We believe these numbers are made up of some people who are truly expressing religious bigotry and others who are fearful about terrorism and are willing to do anything they think might make us safer,” Doug Usher of Purple Strategies, tells Bloomberg Politics. “This indicates that, despite some conventional wisdom expressed in the last 48 hours, this is unlikely to hurt Trump at least in the primary campaign.” 

While these results show Trump’s extremist and offensive new policy is helping him with GOP primary voters, only 37 percent of respondents overall, in both parties, support his plan. Overall, 50 percent of likely general election voters are opposed.

Bloomberg reports that support for Trump’s proposed ban “remains essentially unchanged” even when “voters are told both sides of the argument.”

On one side, they were told that “leaders from across the political spectrum have condemned this policy” as one that will make the U.S. “less safe by alienating the allies we need to fight ISIS.” They were also told that Trump has said it is needed until more is known about the threat and that the nation “cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in jihad.”

Indeed, the changes are small, with support among likely Republican primary voters dropping just one point, to 64 percent, and opposition rising six points, to 28 percent.

In both cases, likely Democratic voters are opposed by a full 75 percent.

“Those with less education are more likely to be strongly supportive of Trump’s Muslim proposal, with 34 percent of those without a college education feeling that way compared to 22 percent of those who do have a college education,” Bloomberg observes. “Older voters, evangelical Christians, and whites are also more likely than the overall general election population to favor Trump’s plan.”

 

Image by iprimages via Flickr and a CC license