While top items on the new Trump administration’s to-do list—including repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act and curbing illegal immigration—are popular with his supporters, they are not priorities for the general public as a whole, according to a new poll released January 16, 2017 by POLITICO and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Results showed that 85% of Trump voters see ending Obamacare as an “extremely or very important priority” during the administration’s first 100 days, but among the general population as a whole (including Trump voters), support is only 44%. Support also differed substantially regarding immigration: 78% of Trump voters say dramatic action to curb illegal immigration is a top priority, while only 38% of the general public does; 75% of Trump voters support building a border wall with Mexico, while only 35% of the general public does.
Infrastructure was the only issue receiving similar support from both sides, with about half of Trump voters and the general public rating it as a top priority.
“What is extraordinary is that we’ve gotten so polarized that the winning party has an agenda catering to its own voters, not the general public,” Robert Blendon, Richard L. Menschel Professor of Public Health and Professor of Health Policy and Political Analysis, who co-directed the poll, told POLITICO.
Read POLITICO article: Trump voters set own priorities for the first 100 days