The majority of Americans disapprove of US President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration to get funding for a border wall on the southern border, a poll shows.
Only 39 percent of those taking part in a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll threw support behind the Republican president’s initiative to battle illegal immigration, Politico reported Wednesday.
Fifty-one percent of the voters disapproved of Trump’s decision. The poll result also showed that 41 percent “strongly oppose” the declaration while only 26 percent “strongly support” it.
In order to get the funding, Trump has declared a national emergency at the border in an attempt to circumvent US Congress and get the funding.
Trump’s decision has mostly garnered support among Republicans, 77 percent, as most of Democrats, 81 percent, and independents, 52 percent, expressed opposition, according to the poll.
According to Tyler Sinclair, Morning Consult’s vice president, GOP supporters are strongly “in the president’s corner” on the issue.
“Over three-fourths of Republicans back President Trump’s decision to declare a national emergency at the US-Mexico border, and 75 percent say it wasn’t an abuse of power,” Sinclair said.
Whether or not Trump manages to get the funding for his signature campaign pledge through disaster funds — money allocated to the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Housing and Urban Development or the Army Corps of Engineers – remains to be seen.
During the 2016 presidential campaigning, Trump had vowed to make Mexico pay for the wall.