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

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.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,209 voters nationwide via cell phone and landline from Jan. 9-13, with a 3.3 percent margin of error.