Thirty-five percent of those polled said they were less likely to support a president’s nominee for a Cabinet job if he or she were a banker. | AP Photo Voters skeptical of bankers on incoming Trump team

American voters are happy that Donald Trump is filling his Cabinet with generals. But a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll offers a warning sign to the president-elect as he turns to Wall Street for talent: They still hate bankers.

A new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll finds that 53 percent of voters say they’re heartened by the appointment of multiple retired generals to the top rungs of Trump’s administration. Twenty-three percent say it’s a bad thing, and an identical percentage say they don’t have an opinion.


But bankers are still massively unpopular. Thirty-five percent of those polled said they were less likely to support a president’s nominee for a Cabinet job if he or she were a banker. Just 11 percent said they were more likely to support a banker. And 39 percent think that presidents should nominate fewer bankers to their Cabinets.

The poll, which was conducted Dec. 8-11 among 2,000 registered voters, offers perhaps the first detailed glimpse at public sentiment toward Trump’s nascent team.

Trump has already chosen three retired military men for top posts: Gen. James Mattis as defense secretary, Gen. John Kelly as homeland security secretary and Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn as national security adviser.

Then, there are the bankers: Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s nominee to be Treasury secretary, is an alumnus of Goldman Sachs who had his own hedge fund. Steve Bannon, Trump’s senior adviser, is also a Goldman Sachs alumnus. Wilbur Ross, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, is a billionaire investor who helped turn around companies. Gary Cohn, the president of Goldman Sachs, is slated to be the director of Trump’s National Economics Council.

Mnuchin, Ross, Kelly and Mattis are all subject to Senate confirmation.

It’s no surprise that military veterans are more popular than bankers. But the blanket approval of retired generals runs counter to the consitutional principle that civilians should be in charge of the military. Most voters plainly don’t care.

"Confidence in the U.S. military has always ranked high among Americans, so it's no surprise that voters approve of Donald Trump appointing former military generals," said Kyle Dropp, Morning Consult co-founder and chief research officer.

Eighty-two percent of Republicans say it’s a good thing to have a large number of retired generals, while just 30 percent of Democrats agree. Forty-three percent of Democrats think it’s a bad thing.

As Trump announces ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson as his secretary of state pick, the POLITICO/Morning Consult poll shows that many don’t know who he is. (Respondents were informed about Tillerson’s post at ExxonMobil in the poll question.)

Mitt Romney was voters’ top choice for Foggy Bottom with 19 percent saying they’d like to see the former Massachusetts governor as the nation’s top diplomat. Just 2 percent say they’d like to see Tillerson run the State Department.

Morning Consult is a nonpartisan media and technology company that provides data-driven research and insights on politics, policy and business strategy.

More details on the poll and its methodology can be found in these two documents — Toplines: http://politi.co/2gSLfMG | Crosstabs: http://politi.co/2hmvP70