A new poll finds bad news for President Trump on two fronts, voters aren’t buying his claims of voter fraud, and they say that if there was voter fraud, it likely benefitted Trump.
The Morning Consult/POLITICO poll found, “35 percent of voters viewed Trump as the presidential candidate who was helped by voter fraud. Three in 10 voters said they thought Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton most likely benefited from voter fraud, while 18 percent said no fraudulent ballots were cast and 17 percent had no opinion…..Twenty-five percent of survey respondents said they subscribe to Trump’s theory of voter fraud, while 44 percent said they don’t. Just over one-third of Republicans (36 percent) said they believe Trump’s claim, compared with 26 percent who don’t. Almost four in 10 Republican voters (38 percent) said they don’t know or have no opinion.”
For all the credit that the press gives Trump for his showmanship, what appears to be missing in his presidency is an ability to move public opinion. Republicans are willing to fall in behind Trump, but the rest of the country has been immovable for the President.
If this trend continues, the political outcome will be a president who will not be able to use his platform to mobilize public opinion in support of his and his parties policies, which will have a major impact on the opinions of voters. For example, President Obama struggled to get voters behind the ACA. The public opinion struggles of the healthcare law have dogged it for years and allowed his opponents to create a false narrative centered around “Obamacare failure.”
The fact that a plurality of voters believe that Trump benefitted from voter fraud suggests a president that has a major credibility issue. Outside of the Republican Party, most Americans don’t trust Trump, and there remains an air of illegitimacy to his administration.
Add up all of these factors and the sum is the perfect storm for a failed Trump presidency.