Government Shutdown
Poll: Americans increasingly blame Trump for the shutdown, 25 percent back his negotiating position
No one is "winning" the fight over President Trump's border wall and the partial government shutdown it sparked, but Trump is losing, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday ahead of Trump's Oval Office address. A 51 percent majority of American adults say Trump "deserves most of the blame" for the shutdown, up 4 percentage points from the previous poll, conducted right before Christmas. Another 32 percent place most of the blame with congressional Democrats and 7 percent mostly fault congressional Republicans — largely unchanged from the last poll.
And the wall itself is increasingly unpopular, except among Republicans, the poll found. Overall, 41 percent of Americans support more border fencing — a drop of 12 points from a similar poll an early 2015, before Trump made it central to his campaign — and 35 percent support a congressional spending bill that funds Trump's wall. Only 25 percent back Trump's decision to shut down parts of the government until Congress appropriates his nearly $6 billion down payment on the wall. Among Republicans, 77 percent said they want additional fencing and 54 percent backed Trump's negotiating position.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted in English Jan. 1-7 among 2,203 U.S. adults, and it has a credibility interval of 2 percentage points.