Democrats want leaders to block Trump

Democratic voters are sending a clear message to their elected officials in Washington: Stop Donald Trump at all costs.

A new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll shows that just 34 percent of Democratic voters want their party’s elected officials to find ways to work with the new president. A 56-percent majority say Democrats in Congress should stick to their principles, even "if that means blocking all legislation or nominees for government posts.”

The survey — conducted Feb. 2 through Feb. 4 — is instructive, as Trump and Republicans begin to plot their legislative plans on everything from repealing and replacing Obamacare to tax reform. Democrats, in the minority in both chambers, are being squeezed by their base to stop Trump’s agenda in its tracks, even if they lack the power to do so.

"There was talk after the election that Trump might be a president who Democrats could work with, at least on certain issues like infrastructure. But this new data indicates that, even if deals are possible, that's not primarily what Democratic voters are looking for," said Morning Consult Chief Research Officer and Co-Founder Kyle Dropp.

The survey, which was conducted among 2,070 registered voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points, shows skepticism about cooperating with Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). For example, just 23 percent of Democrats want to confirm Neil Gorsuch as the next justice on the Supreme Court, and they believe that the Senate should only vote to approve a judge if he garners 60 votes, instead of 51.

A clear majority of all voters – 58 percent – say Gorsuch should be considered on his qualifications, not his views on issues that might come before the court. Forty-eight percent of respondents said Gorsuch would make the court more conservative, while just 18 percent said his confirmation would not change the balance of the court. Gorsuch is replacing late Justice Antonin Scalia, another conservative jurist who passed away nearly a year ago.

Across the board, Trump is finding pretty widespread support for nearly all of his policy prescriptions. Fifty-four percent of those surveyed said they approve of Trump’s new immigration restrictions, which curtail the flow of people from seven Muslim-majority countries. Only 38 percent of voters oppose the order.

Other polls show far less support for the immigration restrictions. Each poll uses its own wording to describe the executive order, and only some pollsters offer an explicit "don't know" option to respondents. But, generally, the finding is consistent with other online polls that show more support for Trump's actions than live-interview telephone polls.

That disparity extends to Trump's overall approval rating. While live-interview polls from Gallup and Quinnipiac University show majorities disapprove of Trump's job performance, his approval rating in the POLITICO/Morning Consult survey, 48 percent, is slightly greater than his 46-percent disapproval rating.