Trump supporters turning on president over Mueller investigation into Russia ties, poll shows

Seventy-two per cent of supporters believe president has been dishonest about probe into 2016 election

Chris Baynes
Tuesday 18 December 2018 12:34 GMT
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Donald Trump will sit down with Robert Mueller 'only over my dead body' says Rudy Giuliani

More than seven in 10 supporters of Donald Trump believe he has been dishonest about Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, according to a poll.

Seventy-two per cent say the president has not been “completely true” about the special counsel’s probe into alleged interference in the 2016 election, the CNN survey found.

The poll of Americans who approve of Mr Trump’s performance suggests there is a significant minority of supporters with concerns over some aspects of his presidency.

Thirty-eight per cent of those surveyed said he was “unwise or unethical on business with Russia”, while 29 per cent disapproved of his handling of the Russia probe.

Forty-six per cent said it Mr Trump could be implicated in Moscow’s interference in the 2016 vote, with 54 per cent saying it was “not at all likely”.

However, few of those with concerns about the president’s integrity back calls for impeachment. Only five per cent of Mr Trump’s supporters believe he should be removed from office, the poll found.

Eighteen per cent disapproved of how Mr Mueller was handling the Russia probe, and 83 per cent said it was not a "serious matter".

The survey suggests there are other issues on which the president has failed to convince his supporters.

While Mr Trump has repeatedly – and wrongly – claimed the US economy is the strongest "in the history of our country", 62 per cent of his supporters rate it as worse than “very good”.

Thirty-eight per cent say his response to the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi had not been tough enough.

Mr Trump's approval rating dipped to 38 per cent this week, according to separate polling by Gallup. The figure is is the lowest since February and a fall from 40 per cent last week.

Fifty-seven per cent said the disapproved of the president's performance.

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