Trump's border wall speech barely changed anyone's mind, poll finds

Legion club members watch President Trumps Oval Office speech.

(Image credit: Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)

published 14 January 2019

So, did President Trump's Oval Office speech actually convince Americans to support the border wall? Nope.

Last week, amid a still-ongoing government shutdown, Trump gave his 10-minute case for why America needs a wall on the southern border. That speech only convinced two percent of Americans to change their mind, a Quinnipiac University poll has found. That's well within the poll's 3.3 percent margin of error — and the poll doesn't specify whether that two percent changed their mind to agree or disagree with Trump.

The federal government has been shut down for 24 days now, all over Trump's demand for $5.7 billion in border wall funding, which Democrats refuse to bend to. The poll showed how support for the border wall has slowly grown through Trump's presidency, expanding steadily from 33 percent in May 2017 to 43 percent today. Still, just 32 percent of Americans said they approve of "shutting down the government to make sure that the wall ... receives funding," the Quinnipiac poll said.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.

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