A new poll sponsored by the University of Virginia Center for Politics finds that an overwhelming number of Trump voters agree with his statement that the press is the enemy of the American people.
The Center for Politics, founded by UVA’s Robert Kent Gooch Professor of Politics, Larry Sabato, recently sponsored a poll by Glen Bolger’s Public Opinion Strategies conducted between April 17 and 19 of 1,000 voters who admitted to voting for Trump in last year’s election.
The poll featured a long list of questions for participants. The president’s supporters have what the survey called a “jaundiced eye on the media.”
Participants were asked, “When you hear the media being critical of Donald Trump, does their criticism make you question your support for him, or does it reinforce that he’s on the right track in terms of shaking things up in Washington, D.C.?”
A whopping 88 percent said that the media’s attacks on Trump actually reinforce their feeling that he is on the right track. In contrast, a mere 12 percent said that the media’s criticism makes them question their support for the president.
One female Trump supporter told the pollsters that the media is not being a “voice of the people,” while a male voter who said he also voted for Obama in the past said that the media spends too much time “blowing things out of proportion.”
Another female Trump voter who also claimed she voted for Obama told the poll takers that she thinks the media is “creating a lot of the racism that’s out there.”
Meanwhile, the poll also found that a huge number of Trump voters either strongly or somewhat agree that the media is the enemy.
When the pollsters asked, “Do you agree or disagree with Donald Trump’s statement that the press ‘is the enemy of the American people,'” another 88 percent said that they agree with Trump.
The 88 percent was closely split, with 42 percent saying they “strongly agree” with Trump’s heavily used stump speech claim, while 45 percent said they “somewhat agree” with the statement.
Only nine percent said they “somewhat disagree,” while a tiny four percent said they “strongly disagree” with Trump’s accusation, for a total of only 12 percent.
The survey was taken of Trump voters across the nation and also among participants of focus groups held in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Texas. It has a margin of error of plus 3.1 percent.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com
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