NBC political director Chuck Todd revealed an inconvenient truth when he acknowledged on Friday that even though Trump may not have the most robust poll numbers, Trump’s supporters still make up the “biggest faction” in today’s polarized political era.
On his MTP Daily program on MSNBC, Todd said that Trump’s supporters are “sticking by him” and though not a majority, Trump’s base is still “bigger than any other faction” in politics today.
Todd was referencing the 38% to 42% of voters who have stubbornly stood by Trump in recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal polls:
• Trump’s positive rating: 38%
• Those preferring a GOP-controlled Congress: 42%
• Those who believe Trump’s problems are due to the DC establishment: 42%
• Those who believe the economy has improved and Trump deserves credit for it: 38%
• Those who think Obamacare is a bad idea: 38%
• And those who believe the efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare should continue: 38%
While speaking about the poll results, the rigidly conventional and “by the book” Todd often seemed to short-circuit, as he sensed that Trump may actually be in stronger shape than the poll numbers suggest. What Todd and his gang of properly-sounding pollsters may not realize is that average Americans who like Trump may not want to publicly reveal that information to a stranger who sounds like an elitist on the phone.
These Trump supporters just may not want to deal with the potential backlash and stigma that they think will come their way from those in “proper society.” Instead, as they did in 2016, Trump supporters just quietly show their support in voting booths.
During the 2016 campaign, Trump often spoke about the “silent majority” while Breitbart News wrote extensively about the “reverse-Bradley effect.”