A majority of Americans ― 55 percent ― disapprove of President Donald Trump’s decision to declare a national emergency along the U.S.-Mexico border in order to pay for construction of a border wall, a new HuffPost/YouGov survey finds. Just 37 percent approve.
The emergency declaration is significantly more unpopular in the poll than building the wall itself, of which 49 percent disapprove and 45 percent approve. (Earlier polling from other outlets has found higher levels of opposition both to construction of the wall and to the idea of declaring a national emergency to fund it.)
Half of Americans say that Trump’s decision to declare a national emergency is unprecedented, while 29 percent consider it similar to actions taken by past presidents. Trump’s recent predecessors in the Oval Office collectively declared dozens of national emergencies, but most concerned sanctions against other countries and none were intended to overrule Congress on a spending decision.
Opinions on Trump’s declaration of a national emergency are starkly divided along political lines, with the president’s supporters overwhelmingly in favor and those who supported Hillary Clinton in 2016 almost universally opposed.
Just 36 percent of Americans believe that most or all congressional Republicans support Trump’s decision to declare a national emergency, with 45 percent saying that at best only some do. Trump voters are more likely to believe he has substantial in-party support, with 56 percent saying most or all congressional Republicans back the president and just 31 percent saying he has narrower support.
The public is close to evenly split on Trump’s leadership abilities, with 45 percent calling him a strong leader and 47 percent saying he’s a weak leader.
Use the widget below to further explore the results of the HuffPost/YouGov survey, using the menu at the top to select survey questions and the buttons at the bottom to filter the data by subgroups:
The HuffPost/YouGov poll consisted of 1,000 completed interviews conducted Feb. 14-15 among U.S. adults, using a sample selected from YouGov’s opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population.
HuffPost has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls. You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov’s nationally representative opinion polling. More details on the polls’ methodology are available here.
Most surveys report a margin of error that represents some but not all potential survey errors. YouGov’s reports include a model-based margin of error, which rests on a specific set of statistical assumptions about the selected sample rather than the standard methodology for random probability sampling. If these assumptions are wrong, the model-based margin of error may also be inaccurate. Click here for a more detailed explanation of the model-based margin of error.