US President Donald Trump watches the presentation of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Celtic basketball legend Bob Cousy at the White House Oval Office in Washington, DC on August 22, 2019.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
A CNBC poll conducted in the days leading up to the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump shows that a large portion of Republicans want him to remain head of their party, but a majority of Americans want him to keep the politically leaves.
The CNBC All-America Economic Survey shows that 54% of Americans want Trump to “remove himself completely from politics.” That was the sentiment of 81% of Democrats and 47% of Independents, but only 26% of Republicans.
When it comes to Republicans, 74% want him to remain active in some way, including 48% wanting him to remain head of the Republican Party, 11% wanting him to found a third party, and 12% saying he should remain active in politics, but not as head of a party.
“When we talk about Donald Trump’s future, right now the research shows that he still has this strong core support within his own party that really wants him to remain their leader,” said Jay Campbell, a partner at Hart. Research. and the Democratic pollster for the survey.
But Micah Roberts, the investigation’s Republican pollster, and a partner with Public Opinion Strategies, highlighted the change since Trump was president. Pre-election polls showed that Trump regularly had a GOP approval score of about 90%, meaning at least some of Trump’s Republicans have defected.
The online poll of 1,000 Americans across the country has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5%. It was held Feb. 2-7, ahead of Trump’s Senate trial for uprising and fueling the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol. In the unlikely event of conviction, Trump could be barred by the Senate from ever holding federal public office again.
The poll shows that Trump maintains strong support among Americans without college degrees, a key target audience for the GOP: 89% of the group wants him to stay in politics, including 52% wanting him to remain head of the Republican Party. That’s the highest percentage of any group, and a potential warning sign for Republican Party leaders if they choose to vote to condemn Trump.