02 February 2017

Support for Trump travel ban in line with anti-Muslim attitudes in America

Polling data reveals more Americans support Friday’s executive order banning travel and immigration for people from seven Muslim-majority countries than oppose it. So far, two major surveys have asked American adults about this specific executive order. Both polls suggest that those who back the ban outnumber those who don’t.

UN chief decries discriminatory border bans in rebuke to Trump travel decree

The most recent poll was conducted by Reuters and Ipsos on 30 and 31 January, just days after the order was issued.

Of the 1,201 adults who responded, 48% said they agreed with the executive order and 41% said they disagreed (the group of respondents included independents as well as an almost even split of Democrats and Republicans).

In all polls, question wording is important but that is particularly true of politically charged topics. In the case of the Reuters/Ipsos poll, the wording was relatively neutral: “Do you agree or disagree with the Executive Order that President Trump signed blocking refugees and banning people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S.?” The same was not true of a second survey conducted by Rasmussen, a conservative-leaning polling company. [The Guardian] Read more