Donald Trump created an uproar when he suggested that United States implement a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the United States. The ban would continue, he said, until our leaders “can figure out what is going on.” Republican and Democratic presidential candidates and party leaders denounced his remarks. How did the public react?
Several pollsters went into the field quickly after Trump’s remarks. Their findings are remarkably similar, and we examine them closely in the upcoming January issue of AEI’s Political Report. Fifty-seven percent in an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll opposed Trump’s call for a shutdown, and 25 percent supported it. CBS News found 58 percent saying that the US should not “temporarily” ban Muslims from entering the US. Thirty-six percent were in favor of a temporary ban. The ABC News/Washington Post poll asked about “banning Muslims who are not citizens from entering the United States for the time being.” The responses were virtually identical to the CBS ones; 60 percent were opposed, and 36 percent were in favor.
The kind of partisan differences we see in so many areas today were evident in all three polls. Majorities of Republicans in the CBS and ABC/Post polls favored the more limited temporary ban. When asked about a complete ban, 42 percent of them were in favor, with 36 percent opposed. More than 70 percent of Democrats in all three polls were opposed to Trump’s plan. Nearly six-in-ten independents in each poll were, too.
The CBS News poll tapped into a utilitarian reaction to Trump’s proposal—public skepticism about whether a ban would work. In the poll, a plurality of respondents, 46 percent, said that the ban would have no effect on keeping the United States safe from terrorism. Twenty-eight percent said it would make us safer, and 19 percent less safe.
Still, Americans are worried about terrorism, and it has risen to the top of the polls when people are asked about the most important problem the country faces. In a new Pew Research Center poll, 62 percent said they were very concerned about the spread of Islamic terrorism around the world, and another 27 percent were somewhat worried. Although the margins differed, majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and independents were very concerned. Americans are also deeply concerned that President Obama has been too weak in his response to terrorist threats. Fifty-eight percent in the same poll said Obama is not tough enough in his approach to foreign policy and national security issues.
Americans want to be tolerant, and polls taken over time show generally favorable views about Muslims as a whole. In questions asked by the NBC News/Wall Street Journal pollsters in 2009, 2010 and late 2015, more than half—52, 53, and 59 percent, respectively—had favorable views about Muslims. This is true even as the CBS News poll found that half of Americans didn’t know anyone who was Muslim. Eighteen percent had a close Muslim friend, and 30 percent a Muslim acquaintance. Responses to a new Pew question about whether the Islamic religion is more likely than others to encourage violence among its believers or whether it does not encourage violence more than others shows the public split, 46 to 45 percent. Sixty-one percent of those surveyed by Pew said Muslims living in the US should not be subject to additional scrutiny because of their religion; thirty-two percent said they should.
The weight of overall opinion in these polls suggests that many Americans clearly felt Trump’s remarks were not in keeping with our nation’s ideals or Constitution. Sixty-seven percent in the CBS News poll said “temporarily banning Muslims from entering the US” goes against the country’s “founding principles.” Others worried that such a ban could put at risk the lives of US soldiers in Muslim countries and increase hostility to the US. When pollsters go into the field to get quick reactions to events in the news cycle, many people often tell them they don’t know enough to have an opinion. But this time, even in very early polls, the data are clear.
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