Donald Trump Polls: Rapidly Growing Unpopularity With Key Groups Could Create Impossible Electoral Map For Trump In November
Donald Trump has run into deep trouble at the polls, with rising unpopularity among key groups making for what political pundits say could be a nearly impossible task in November.
Trump has carried high unpopularity since entering the race, with many Americans already holding an unfavorable view of the brash billionaire from his television appearances. While Trump has found fervent support among the key group of Republican primary voters, his general election polling continues to slide as he is rapidly losing the support of groups beyond Republican voters.
As the New York Times noted, it is creating what appears to be an impossible path to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.
“In recent head-to-head polls with one Democrat whom Mr. Trump may face in the fall, Hillary Clinton, he trails in every key state, including Florida and Ohio, despite her soaring unpopularity ratings with swing voters.
“In Democratic-leaning states across the Rust Belt, which Mr. Trump has vowed to return to the Republican column for the first time in nearly 30 years, his deficit is even worse: Mrs. Clinton leads him by double digits in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.”
Trump has suffered a series of controversies this week, including a call to punish women who get abortions if the procedure were outlawed and his support for Japan and South Korea developing nuclear weapons.
Trump was also called to task for his feud with Ted Cruz, with Trump responding to an ad by an anti-Trump PAC that featured nude modeling pictures of his wife, Melania, but tweeting an unflattering picture of Cruz’s wife.
Donald Trump admits he ‘regrets’ tweeting pic of Heidi Cruz. Ted Cruz has now responded…https://t.co/09PwTOpoyb
— FOX&friends Weekend (@ffweekend) April 3, 2016
If @realDonaldTrump Loses Wisconsin To Ted Cruz, Trump May Lose The GOP Nomination: https://t.co/R1HdEqAkmx
— Avik Roy ???? (@Avik) April 3, 2016
Pundits say the missteps could be causing permanent damage to Donald Trump, turning off voters who won’t return in November.
“If he continues to fumble the ball, he risks everything,” David Bossie, president of the conservative group Citizens United, told Reuters. “These types of ham-handed mistakes give his opponents even greater opportunity.”
Donald Trump has seen his polls sink further and further, with more than 80 percent of women and Hispanic voters now viewing him unfavorably. He also carries huge unfavorables among Millennials and even white male voters, a demographic he once dominated, now have a slightly more than 50 percent unfavorable view of Trump.
There could also be some major trouble for some of Trump’s campaign platforms. Though there was once widespread support among Republican voters for his proposal to build a wall along the length of the border between the United States and Mexico, a new poll from Pew Research Center shows that almost 60 percent of all registered American voters are against the idea.
The idea had just 38 percent support, the poll found, though it did still have the support of 67 percent of Republicans. A full 86 percent of Democratic voters were against Trump’s wall idea.
Some supporters are now calling on Donald Trump to shift his campaign away from these controversies and the divisive language to take a more presidential tone. Newt Gingrich, who has been an informal adviser for Trump, suggested that the GOP frontrunner undergo an overhaul.
“He has certain habits that may have been appropriate at one time and are not appropriate now,” Gingrich said. “He’s gone from being an insurgent that people laughed at and a front-runner that people were amazed by to the potential nominee. That requires you to change your role as all this comes together.”
Gingrich suggested that Donald Trump could increase support and turn around the polls by presenting his policy ideas through a series of formal speeches, in the form of the one he made last month to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
[Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images]
