Overwhelming majority of Americans think Trump shouldn't encourage stay-at-home protests, poll finds

A majority of Americans opposes recent protests against stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus crisis and feels President Trump should not encourage them, a new poll has found.

In a CBS News poll released on Thursday, 62 percent of respondents said they oppose those protesting coronavirus lockdowns in state capitals recently, with 23 percent saying they support them. A plurality of Republicans, 46 percent, said they oppose the protesters.

Asked if Trump should encourage these kinds of protests, just 7 percent of respondents said he should, while 55 percent said he should discourage them and 38 percent said he shouldn't say anything about the protests at all. Only 13 percent of Republicans said Trump should encourage the protesters.

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"In fact, only a quarter of people who support the protesters think the president should encourage the protests," CBS writes.

Trump last week tweeted calls to "liberate" numerous states with stay-at-home orders, although on Wednesday, he criticized Georgia's governor for his plan to begin reopening some nonessential businesses, saying it's "too soon."

In the new CBS poll, 63 percent said their concern is reopening too fast rather than too slowly, and 70 percent said the country's priority should be keeping up with social distancing even if it hurts the economy in the short term. This is consistent with other recent polls, and on Wednesday, an Associated Press poll found that 61 percent say current social distancing measures are about right, with another 26 percent saying they don't go far enough.

The CBS poll was conducted by speaking to a sample of 2,112 U.S. residents from April 20-22. The margin of error is 2.5 percentage points. Read more at CBS.