10 December 2015

Republicans Split on Donald Trump’s Proposal to Ban Muslims, Poll Finds

Donald J. Trump’s plan to ban foreign Muslims from entering the United States has received bipartisan condemnation from lawmakers and advocacy groups, but Republicans in general appear to support the idea, according to a national poll released Thursday.

An NBC/Wall Street Journal survey found that 57 percent of all those polled opposed Mr. Trump’s idea, with 25 percent supporting it. However, Republicans in the poll were essentially split on the proposal, with 42 percent backing a moratorium on Muslims’ entering the country and 36 percent opposing such a policy.

When looking at just potential Republican primary voters, views were even more sharply divided, with 38 percent for the ban and 39 percent opposed to it.

The results show that despite the fact that people around the world have accused Mr. Trump of being a bigot for wanting to bar Muslims, the proposal may not hurt him in the race for the Republican nomination. In fact, it could help. [The New York Times] Read more