New poll shows Americans trust Democrats over Trump on border security
Days after the end of the longest shutdown in history, a new Quinnipiac poll released Tuesday finds a majority of Americans trust Democrats over President Trump on the issue at the center of the stalemate: border security.
Fifty percent of registered voters say they trust Democrats in Congress to address border security, as opposed to 41 percent who said they trust Mr. Trump.
The results are deeply divided along party and racial lines. Republicans trust Mr. Trump 87 to 8 percent, while Democrats trust congressional Democrats 91 to 4 percent. White voters trust Mr. Trump by 50 to 44 percent, black voters trust Democrats by 75 to 16 percent and Hispanic voters trust Democrats 66 to 13 percent.
As recently as November, a Washington Post/ABC News poll found voters trusted Republicans over Democrats on border security by 10 points.
The 35-day shutdown was the result of a dispute over funding for a border wall. Mr. Trump initially refused to sign any funding bill that didn't include money for the wall, which Democrats opposed. However, Mr. Trump backed down on Friday, signing a continuing resolution without wall funding to reopen the government through Feb. 15 while congressional negotiators try to craft a deal on border security.
Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told "Face the Nation" Mr. Trump is willing to allow another shutdown if he does not get wall funding by the new deadline.
"He is willing to do whatever it takes to secure the border. He does take this very seriously. This is a serious humanitarian and security crisis," Mulvaney said Sunday.
But the Quinnipiac poll found the wall is mostly popular among members of Mr. Trump's political base. Fifty-five percent of voters overall oppose building a wall, while 41 percent support it. Sixty-one percent of voters said they would support a bill funding new border security measures without a wall, and 66 percent of voters said they would not support Mr. Trump calling a national emergency to build the wall. Mr. Trump is also mulling a national emergency declaration as a possible path to funding wall construction.
The poll also found 56 percent of voters blamed Mr. Trump and Republicans for the shutdown. Sixty-eight percent said they did not support shutting down the government in an attempt to get funding for the wall.
