Key Trump voting bloc can no longer stomach major mandate: analysis

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Independent voters helped propel Donald Trump to his second term in office because they viewed Kamala Harris and the Democrats "as the real threats to democracy," The Brookings Institution reported. But as America nears 100 days since Trump took office, new polling revealed that the same bloc soured on Trump due to at least one of his major mandates.

Greg Sargent with The New Republic cited CNN analyst Harry Enten who examined aggregated polling showing Trump to be "underwater" with Independents "by 22 points, the worst ever in presidential polling." Sargent postulated that the abysmal number may be due to "genuine backlash to Trump’s ethno-nationalist authoritarianism."

Sargent also cited a new Washington Post-ABC News poll showing Trump "slipping underwater on immigration, which has been his best issue." The poll reported that 53% of Americans disapprove of his handling of the issue. Among Independents, however, the disapproval number jumped to 56%.

"Only 21 percent of independents want wrongfully deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia to remain imprisoned in El Salvador" suggesting that Trump’s propaganda" depicting Abrego Garcia "as a gang member who doesn’t deserve due process is a bust," Sargent wrote.

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In addition the WaPo poll showed that 62% of Independents opposed removing foreign students from the U.S., while 52% opposed sending migrants to El Salvador.

"Note that these are all matters that raise basic issues of fundamental fairness, due process, and the rule of law," Sargent wrote. "This is likely a key reason independents are tilting against Trump on them. They appear to involve arbitrary, flagrant, and lawless abuses of power that flout the basic principle that all people deserve due process and a fair hearing, regardless of their status—the very principle, of course, that the Trump project is hell-bent on demolishing."

Sargent made clear in the article that immigration may not be the only reason Trump was tanking with independents.

"What’s probably going on is more subtle than that," Sargent wrote. "Trump’s lawlessness across the board is clearly a problem among this demographic," citing a Reuters-Ipsos poll showing that "very large majorities of unaffiliated voters want Trump to follow court orders and oppose his efforts to cut off funds to universities that he disagrees with, which is also probably illegal."

Read The New Republic article here.

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