A majority of U.S. adults believe Republican leadership should take the party in a different direction rather than follow President Trump’s lead, although a majority of Republican leaners disagree, a Washington Post/ABC poll released Friday found.
The 1,002 U.S. adults surveyed were asked, “Going forward, do you think Republican leaders should follow Trump’s leadership or should they lead the party in a different direction?”
A majority 69 percent expressed the belief that GOP leadership take the party in a different direction, while 26 percent said they should continue to follow President Trump’s leadership.
However, the results flipped dramatically among those who lean Republican, with 57 percent stating that GOP leadership should continue to follow Trump’s leadership moving forward. Just over one-third said otherwise, with seven percent expressing no opinion on the matter.
While a majority of Republican leaners still believe the party should follow Trump’s leadership, the results reflect a decrease from the 76 percent who said the same in February 2018. At the time, over three-quarters expressed the belief that congressional GOP leaders should follow Trump’s leadership. At the time, only 18 percent said they should lead the party in a different direction.
The survey also asked respondents if Congress “should or should not remove Trump from office and disqualify him from holding elected office in the future,” but failed to mention that the Senate would not be able to convict and remove him prior to his term ending. Even so, 56 percent said he should be removed from office, with 42 percent choosing otherwise.
However, only 12 percent of Republicans and Republican leaners agreed with the majority opinion to remove and disqualify Trump. Eighty-five percent of Republicans and Republican leaners said Congress should not remove Trump or disqualify him from future elected office.
The survey, taken January 10-13, has a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percent.