Donald Trump is Very Unpopular With Everyone Except White Evangelicals Who Love Him

When historians look back on this presidency, the greatest irony they will note was that perhaps America's least virtuous chief executive was sustained in power by the Christian right.

A new poll conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute [PRRI] and The Atlantic found that Trump's backbone of support is the white evangelical community. In the most recent polling by PRRI 77 percent of white evangelicals view Trump favorably or mostly favorably, up from 75% in April, and his highest numbers since the 2016 election.

However, according to earlier PRRI research, published in April, the story is very different with other demographics.

New York Magazine: "Among Americans who are not self-identified white Evangelicals, Trump’s favorability ratio is 36-60, with 41 percent expressing very unfavorable views of the president. Among women who are not white Evangelicals, the ratio is 29-69, with about half — 49 percent — harboring a very unfavorable view of Trump. How about college-educated Americans who aren’t white Evangelicals? Trump’s at 32-65, with 47 percent holding a very unfavorable opinion of him. And outside the ranks of the white Evangelicals, even non-college-educated Americans have a dim view of the MAGA man, disliking him by a 39-58 margin ..."

We've discussed research about what motivates Trump's base in earlier articles and PRRI's most recent polling reinforces earlier studies. It's not about economics, its about America's growing diversity, religion and race.

Religious News Service: "As a group, white evangelicals were also the least likely to view America’s changing racial demographic makeup positively. Fifty-two percent of white evangelicals said they felt negatively about the prospect that nonwhites would become the majority of the population by 2043. That fits with white evangelicals’ approach to immigration, their distrust of Muslims and support for a border wall with Mexico. By comparison, all other religious groups in the survey viewed the changing demographics in mostly positive terms."

"Brantley Gasaway, a professor of American religious studies at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa., said white evangelicals’ fears about the nation’s growing racial diversity might be linked to their perception of religious diversity.“

"They perceive that America becoming less white means America will become less Christian,” he said. “I don’t think that’s true. Many Latino immigrants are coming from predominantly Christian nations. But they perceive changes in racial demographics as being a threat to the predominance of Christians in the United States.”

President Trump's evangelical support has not been eroded by the drum beat of Russia revelations, allegations of sexual impropriety, his failure with N. Korea or even the growing list of administration scandals. However, it will be interesting to see if there might be a tipping point with his base as the trade wars continue to heat up and Americans start to feel some economic hardship from increased tariffs. That is one thing that the President won't be able to blame on the media.

By: Don Lam & Curated Content

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