Central American migrants sit on top of the border wall on the beach in San Diego during a gathering of migrants living on both sides of the border, Sunday, April 29, 2018. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
More Americans blame President Donald Trump than congressional Democrats for the partial U.S. government shutdown, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Thursday. Forty-seven percent of adults hold President Trump responsible, while 33 percent blame Democrats in Congress. Seven percent of Americans blamed congressional Republicans.
Thirty-five percent of respondents backed including money for the wall in a congressional spending bill, and 25 percent support the President shutting down the government over the matter.
In a statement on Thursday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said, “The president has made clear that any bill to fund the government must adequately fund border security.”
President Trump threatened to close the U.S.-Mexico border over the Democrats refusal to fund the proposed border wall in a tweet on Friday:
We will be forced to close the Southern Border entirely if the Obstructionist Democrats do not give us the money to finish the Wall & also change the ridiculous immigration laws that our Country is saddled with. Hard to believe there was a Congress & President who would approve!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 28, 2018
A new Huffington Post/YouGov poll(pdf) also released Thursday, found that “a huge majority” of Republicans support President’s Trump’s handling of the partial government shutdown. Eighty-four percent of Republicans — 64 percent of whom strongly approve and 20 percent who somewhat approve — support the President’s refusal to accept a funding bill that does not include more than $5 billion for enhancing security operations at the U.S.-Mexico border. According to the Washington Examiner the You/Gov poll found a partisan divide with unhappy with the President’s position.
The gap is reversed on the other side, with 87 percent of Democrats unhappy with the Republican president’s behavior, according to the Dec. 22-23 poll of U.S. citizens. The Examiner reports, “That party-line division isn’t reflected in the overall figures, which show 49 percent of all U.S. citizen adults blame Trump, compared with 40 percent who pointed to congressional Democrats and one-third who said congressional Republicans shouldered the blame.”
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online Dec. 21-25 and had a 2.4 percent margin of error. According to Reuters, the poll also has a “credibility interval” of two percentage points for the entire sample and four points for members of either political party. The polling for question from the Huffington Post/YouGov online poll was conducted Dec. 22-23 and had a 3.4 percent margin of error.
It is important to note the so-called shutdown only is only impacting 20 percent of the federal government. The remaining 80 percent is fully funded and is unaffected by the shutdown.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member