
Donald Trump is historically unpopular, and nearly every decision he has made as president has been met with strong disapproval from voters. But his most loyal supporters continue to stubbornly approve of everything he does — even when it undermines America's national security.

Here is the good news: A majority of Americans do not approve of Donald Trump betraying a close ally to share Israel's top secrets with Russia.

The bad news is that even on this, some of his most fervent supporters still stand with him.

A new Politico/Morning Consult poll found that 58 percent of respondents do not approve of Trump's sharing of classified information with top Russian officials during a meeting in the Oval Office. More surprising, and certainly alarming, is the 22 percent who say it was "appropriate."


That minority pales in comparison to the large majority who not only thinks it was inappropriate, but who consider Trump "arrogant," "reckless," and "not willing to admit mistakes," according to the same poll. Fifty percent say he is not "able to serve as commander-in-chief." And more than half do not have confidence in his ability to protect the country from terrorism.

Trump's decision to disclose highly sensitive information to Russia was indisputably reckless, even if not — as he and other Republicans have emphasized — illegal. It jeopardized our national security, relationships with our closest allies, and the lives of those on the front lines of the fight against terrorism.

And still, Trump's loyal base has not deserted him. After everything he has done, as a candidate and as president, it raises the serious question of whether there is anything he could do that would lose the support of those who seem willing to forgive any transgression, no matter how unpopular, distasteful, or dangerous it is.

From the day he started his campaign by calling Mexicans "rapists," through a long election season of blatant misogyny, bigotry, and praise of murderous dictators, and even when the nation listened in disgust to a recording of him bragging about committing sexual assault — still, his supporters stood with him.

It would seem that Trump's supposed campaign "joke" — that he "could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody" and not lose any voters — might have had some disturbing truth to it after all.