Rick Tyler, who worked on the 2016 presidential primary campaign of Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) slammed President Donald Trump after the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll found that the president is losing significant support among his own base, with 15 percent of Republicans and 30 percent of self-described conservatives saying they will not vote to give Trump a second term.
“At least that number of Republicans and conservatives can’t be happy that Trump is squandering his presidency and basing his reelection, so far, on a campaign of grievances instead of policies,” he said, adding:
“But given Trump has no real vision for the country, beyond what’s in it for him, and no capacity to bring about change in a constitutional republic by working well with others, his only real choice is to run as a weak, pathetic victim. Only the brainwashed or dead would cast their lots with him.”
The poll, released on Monday, surveyed 1,001 Americans over four days last week. The pollsters wrote that in Trump's own party:
"15 percent of Republicans say they definitely will not support Trump for-election, as do 30 percent of conservatives. This soars to 61 percent of 18- to 39-year-olds, 62 percent of women, 64 percent of those with a postgraduate degree, 68 percent of urban residents, 81 percent of Hispanics and 86 percent of blacks."
Additionally, the pollsters found that 40 percent of those surveyed would oppose Trump based on his handling of health care, noting that those who voted in the 2018 midterms "selected health care as the top issue in their vote by a wide margin over three others offered – and those who picked it favored Democrats for Congress by 75-23 percent."
The president's approach to immigration policy is also unpopular, with 44 percent saying the issue makes them "more likely to oppose Trump for a second term" compared to 31 percent who say the issue has bolstered their support for him. 36 percent of the survey's respondents say they oppose Trump's approach to international trade while 32 percent oppose his approach to the economy.
The Mueller report has also dealt the president a blow. "Thirty-six percent say it makes them more likely to oppose him for re-election, vs. just 14 percent more likely to support him. As reported Friday, 58 percent think Trump lied to the public about the Mueller investigation," the pollsters observed.
For many, the poll is a confirmation of the eroding support for the president and the Republican Party.
Erin Perrine, a deputy communications director at Trump’s reelection campaign, pushed back against the poll results:
“Polling at this point in the election cycle is never an accurate prediction. President Trump holds historically high approval ratings within the Republican Party across numerous polls, with nearly 9 out of 10 Republicans supporting him in a recent ABC poll. When we lay out the clear successes under President Trump, he will undoubtedly win in 2020.”
The ABC News/Washington Post poll comes after last week's Politico/Morning Consult poll found that Trump’s approval rating has dropped 5 points since the Mueller report was released, with only 39 percent of voters surveyed saying they approve of the job Trump is doing as president.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that Trump’s approval rating dipped to 37 percent, down three percentage points from a similar poll conducted just days earlier. Reuters says that’s “the lowest level of the year following the release of a special counsel report detailing Russian interference in the last U.S. presidential election.” The outlet also noted that’s lower than the 43 percent in a poll conducted shortly after Attorney General William Barr released his summary of the Mueller report’s contents.
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