And this new Bloomberg poll finding that 64 percent of Republican primary voters approve of his plan to prohibit Muslim migration into the U.S. proves it.
“We believe these numbers are made up of some people who are truly expressing religious bigotry and others who are fearful about terrorism and are willing to do anything they think might make us safer,” Doug Usher, who runs polling for Washington-based Purple Strategies, said in his analysis of the findings. “This indicates that, despite some conventional wisdom expressed in the last 48 hours, this is unlikely to hurt Trump at least in the primary campaign.”
Online polls have their problems, but it’s fair to say that conservative public opinion about Muslims lines up with Trump’s views pretty well. Which in turn complicates Republican efforts to suggest this is a Trump problem, rather than a problem with their voters.