Trump's Support Erodes Among White Blue Collar Workers

It's taken long enough but support for Trump among blue collar while is finally starting to erode. I've been looking at focus group info from congressional campaigns in Minnesota, Michigan Wisconsin, North Carolina, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania and other states where I've been sworn to secrecy as a condition of getting the information, and something they all have in common is that virtually no Obama supporters who flipped to Trump in 2016 say they would vote for Trump in 2020 and almost the same number say they won't consider voting for a Republican in the congressional midterms. (Some said in voting for Trump they were picking the lesser of two evils and still insist they wouldn't vote for Hillary today; others admit they were wrong and that Trump has shown himself to be the greater evil.)

The White House is focussing in on Trump's unpopular trade wars as a primary reason Republicans are so disliked by voters now and are trying to buy off affected voters with huge subsidies-- subsidies that are making some congressional GOP heads spin. Yesterday Trump accused China of targeting American farmers in a "vicious" way and using them as leverage to get concessions on trade a day after his regime announced a $12 billion farm aid package.

A new Quinnipiac poll also eleased yesterday shows that 38% of voters approve of the way Trump is doing his job. Polled after Trump's Helsinki debacle American voters now give Trump a negative 38% to 58% job approval rating, compared to a negative 43-52% rating after his summit with Kim Jong-un. Republicans still approve of the job he's doing 82% to 15%, as do white evangelicals, who approve 71% to 26% White voters with no college degree are split 49% to 47%, a big drop for Trump in his base. Among white voters without a college degree, 49% said they approve of how Trump is handling his job-- high compared to other demographic groups, by significantly lower from last month when 57% approved.

Asked whether they are proud or embarrassed to have Trump as president 66% of Republicans say they are proud, while only 3% of Democrats and 20% of independents are. Meanwhile 11% of Republicans admit they are embarrassed by him while 84% of Democrats and 49% of independents are. Another interesting question was whether respondents feel Trump wants to do what's best for America or best for himself. 87% of Republicans are so blind to reality that they say he wanted to do what's best for the country and just 10% see him as a self-server. (What planet are they on-- planet Fox?). Among normal people 9% of Democrats and 37% of independents think he's doing what's best for the country, while 87% of Democrats and 59% of independents recognize he's doing what's best for himself, not for the country.

Politico also releases a poll yesterday-- with Morning Consult-- that goes about as badly for Trump. Voters don't agree with his bullshit assertion that the Russians are interfering to help the Democrats. Only 13% believe that the Russians want to help the Democrats-- the hardest of hard core Trump imbecile, people who aren't just suffering from under 80 IQs but are also severely strung out on opioids. (That wasn't in the poll; you just have to go with my gut.)

“I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming [e]lection,” Trump tweeted Tuesday. “Based on the fact that no [p]resident has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don’t want Trump!”

The survey asked about Russian attempts to influence election outcomes-- in 2016, and in the next two elections-- though it didn't explore the specific ways in which individuals affiliated with the Russian government could interfere.

Federal prosecutors working for Robert Mueller, the special counsel, earlier this month filed charges against 12 Russians allegedly involved with hacking Democratic Party computer systems and working to disseminate the data. That effort was apparently designed to harm Democratic candidates, though U.S. officials stress that attempted hacks of election administrators did not result in altering actual vote tabulations.

While Putin has denied Russia was involved, he acknowledged in the summit news conference last week that he wanted Trump to defeat Hillary Clinton.

As for the next presidential election in 2020, the numbers are similar: Fifty-three percent of voters say it’s at least somewhat likely Russia will try to influence the race, and far more voters say the Russians would get involved to help Trump (47 percent) than the president’s opponents (12 percent).

Trump came under fire last week when he offered little criticism of Putin during a joint news conference with the Russian leader after their meeting and appeared to give equal weight to Putin’s denials that his government meddled in the 2016 election as the U.S. government’s assertion that Russians were involved. The next day, Trump attempted to backtrack, saying he misspoke at the news conference.

Asked whether Russia influenced the results of the 2016 presidential election, more voters say Russia did influence the results (42 percent) than say it didn’t (35 percent), the poll shows. But nearly a quarter of voters, 23 percent, have no opinion.

Asked whether Russia tried to influence the election, however, a 56 percent majority says it did. Only 21 percent of voters believe Russia didn’t try to influence the results of the 2016 election.

Voters, overall, are divided on the Trump-Putin summit: Thirty-seven percent describe it as a success, while 36 percent say it wasn’t successful.

Trump’s marks for the summit are slightly lower: Just 26 percent of voters say the meeting gave them a more favorable view of Trump, compared with 34 percent who said it gave them a less favorable view.

Only a quarter of voters, 25 percent, say they have a lot of confidence in Trump to handle threats posed by Russia. A further 18 percent say they have some confidence, while a combined 45 percent don’t have much confidence or any confidence at all in the president when it comes to Russia.

Tyler Sinclair, Morning Consult’s managing director, said voters’ trust in Trump when it comes to Russia has declined-- especially among the president’s electoral base.

“GOP confidence in the president to manage Russian aggression has dropped significantly amid contradictory messages from the White House following the Helsinki summit,” said Sinclair. “Two weeks ago, 58 percent of Republicans said they had a lot of confidence in Trump’s ability to handle those threats, compared to 49 percent who said the same today.”

GOP Tax Scam by Chip Proser