'It looks bad': Trump panics after support for deportations tank in private GOP poll
A batch of private GOP polling data obtained by Axios revealed that President Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy is wildly unpopular with independent and undecided voters, raising “alarm” among the president’s team and the president himself.
"I wouldn't say he's concerned about the policy. He wants deportations. He wants mass deportations,” said a “top Trump adviser,” who spoke with Axios in its report Friday under the condition of anonymity.
“What he doesn't want is what people are seeing. He doesn't like the way it looks. It looks bad. So he's expressed some discomfort at that... There's the right way to do this. And this doesn't look like the right way."
According to the internal polling, a staggering 60% of independent voters disapproved of Trump’s immigration policy, which has seen masked immigration agents swarm American cities and arrest more than 328,000 migrants, more than 73% of whom have no criminal history, and despite Trump’s pledge to only target the “worst of the worst.”
The private polling was completed at the end of December, just days before ICE fatally shot Minnesota woman Renee Good, suggesting that the disapproval for Trump’s immigration policy among independents and undecided voters may have fallen even further since.
As recourse for the abysmal polling numbers, an individual described by Axios as a “close White House ally” who spoke with the outlet on the condition of anonymity advocated for members of the Trump administration to make appearances on news networks “beyond pro-Trump outlets such as Fox News” to promote the “positive” aspects of Trump’s immigration policy, the outlet reported.
Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, flat-out rejected the findings, telling Axios that, despite Trump’s immigration policy being among his worst polling issues, that it was actually “among his best polling issues.”
“President Trump continues to be viewed as a strong leader who keeps the American people safe,” Leavitt told Axios. “A big reason for that is his law and order agenda and handling of immigration/border security – which remains among his best polling issues with voters."