A Hillary Clinton supporter attempts to block a Donald Trump supporter from waving a sign as Clinton greets supporters outside an early voting station at the Pompano Beach Amphitheater in Pompano Beach, Florida, on Sunday. | AP Photo Pew: Almost 60 percent of Clinton supporters have a hard time respecting Trump voters

Almost 60 percent of registered voters who support Hillary Clinton say they have a “hard time” respecting someone who backs Donald Trump for president, a Pew survey released Tuesday shows, while just 40 percent of Trump supporters said the same of Clinton’s backers.

Overall, 58 percent of Clinton-supporting respondents to the Pew survey said they “have a hard time respecting someone who supports Donald Trump for president,” while 40 percent said they have “no trouble” in such a situation. But that percentage climbs among college-educated Clinton backers, 66 percent of whom said they struggle to respect Trump supporters. Among white women who back Clinton, 68 percent said they struggle to respect those who favor the former secretary of state’s opponent.


For Trump supporters, respecting those who back the Democratic nominee seems less of a hurdle. Fifty-six percent of respondents who support the Manhattan billionaire told Pew they would have “no trouble respecting someone who supports Hillary Clinton for president,” compared with 40 percent who said they would have a hard time respecting someone who backs the former secretary of state.

There is little deviation on that question among Trump supporters along educational or gender lines, but younger Trump voters are less likely to struggle to respect those who favor his opponent. Just 29 percent of the real estate mogul’s supporters aged 34 or younger said they would have a hard time respecting a Clinton supporter, while 45 percent of Trump backers older than 35 said the same.

Nearly 90 percent of Clinton’s supporters said Trump has been “too personally critical” of his opponent during the presidential election, while 70 percent of the GOP nominee’s supporters said the same of the former secretary of state. Overall, 62 percent of respondents said Trump has been too personally critical of his opponent, the highest mark Pew has recorded since it began asking that question in 1988.

The Pew survey polled 2,583 adults, 2,120 of whom were registered voters, via landlines and cellphones from Oct. 20 to 25. The margin of error for registered voters was plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.