Trump’s popularity among Republicans bounces back following Capitol riot, poll says
Donald Trump speaks to the media prior to departing from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, 21 September, 2020
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Former president Donald Trump’s popularity rating among Republicans has begun to bounce back since he left office, with half of respondents saying they think he should play a “major role” in the GOP’s future.
According to tracking by Morning Consult, 81 per cent of Republican voters polled between 23 to 25 January hold positive views of Mr Trump, including 54 per cent who do so strongly.
The number marks an improvement on the 76 per cent low of Republican voters who favoured him in tracking between 10 and 12 of January ahead of his impeachment when those who strongly favoured Mr Trump sat at 49 per cent.
Fifty percent of Republican voters in a poll by the company between the 22 and 25 of January also think Mr Trump should maintain a significant role in the party’s future, an increase of nine percentage points since the insurrection.
The former president’s popularity dropped following the 6 January when pro-Trump supporters attacked the Capitol as lawmakers gathered to certify Joe Biden’s win, vandalising and looting the building.
Five people died in the violence and Mr Trump has since been impeached on the accusation that he incited the mob, making him the first president to have been impeached twice.
On the matter of impeachment, 75 per cent of Republican respondents said they would disapprove of the Senate convicting the former president with 67 per cent saying they would “strongly disapprove”.
The Democratic House impeachment managers delivered their ratified article against Mr Trump to the Senate on Monday in a move that automatically triggers Senate trial proceedings in three weeks.
“Tuesday’s vote was yet another example highlighting congressional Republicans’ awareness of the political risk they face in crossing Mr Trump and angering the party’s base,” Morning Consult said.
Women are said to have driven the uptick in Mr Trump’s popularity, with a 15-point surge among likely GOP female voters who said they would wish to see the former president play a major role in the party’s future.
The former president’s overall popularity rating (with Republican and Democrat voters alike) plummeted ahead of his leaving office. The worst result was from Pew Research Center, which had his disapproval rating at 68 per cent and his approval rating at 29 per cent, in a poll of 5,360 adults conducted between 8-12 January.
Mr Trump has not made any objective statements about his political future since leaving office but has set up an “Office of the Former President” which will handle his public correspondence.
The former president insisted in his closing speech to supporters on 20 January that “we will be back in some form”.
Three in 10 Republicans said they would prefer to join a separate independent party named the “Patriot Party” if it were led by Mr Trump, versus 36 per cent who said they would want to stay in the GOP.
A quarter of Republicans said they did not know what they would do in this case.
The Morning Consult poll on a new “Patriot Party” was conducted among 599 Republican voters and 581 Trump voters with a margin of error of four percentage points.
The “major roll” poll and support for an impeachment conviction were conducted among roughly 2000 registered voters each in 2021 and had a margin of error of two percentage points.
Mr Trump’s intraparty favorability rating was conducted among 4,296 Republican voters.
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