Despite a prime time address, a new poll shows President Donald Trump failed to increase support for a border wall. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo POLITICO/Morning Consult Poll Poll: Slight majority opposes Trump emergency declaration for wall funding

A narrow majority of voters oppose President Donald Trump’s declaring a national emergency to fund construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and just over half say circumventing a Congress that won’t provide the money would be an abuse of power, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.

Only 36 percent of voters say they support Trump’s re-allocating money to pay for the border wall through a national emergency, while 51 percent oppose such a declaration. Twice as many voters strongly oppose a national emergency, 41 percent, as strongly support it, 20 percent. And, as with much of the fight that has resulted in a government shutdown lasting more than three weeks, Trump has the support of the vast majority of Republican voters, 72 percent, but very few voters outside his political base.


Trump took his case for a border wall to the American people last week, delivering his first prime-time, Oval Office address in his two-year-old presidency. But the POLITICO/Morning Consult poll suggests that the president’s speech didn’t move the needle.

Nearly half of voters, 49 percent, say Trump is mostly to blame for the shutdown, up slightly from 47 percent last week, before the speech. Only a third, 33 percent, blame Democrats in Congress, and 5 percent blame congressional Republicans — both identical to last week’s poll.

That is consistent with other polls that show Trump and the GOP taking the lion’s share of the blame for the protracted shutdown. In recent surveys from Quinnipiac University , ABC News/Washington Post , CBS News and the Huffington Post , majorities of respondents have pinned responsibility on Trump and Republicans, while far fewer blame Democrats.

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Trump also failed to increase support for the border wall, the POLITICO/Morning Consult poll shows. Fully 44 percent of voters support construction of a border wall, slightly fewer than the 47 percent who oppose it. That is identical to last week’s poll, prior to Trump’s address.

In the other recent polls, support for the border wall ranges between 40 and 45 percent. But other polls show greater opposition to a border wall. In a new Pew Research Center survey , 58 percent oppose “substantially expanding the wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.” In the Quinnipiac poll, 55 percent oppose “building a wall along the border with Mexico.” Opposition to the wall is at 54 percent in the ABC News/Washington Post poll, and 55 percent in the CBS News survey.

The Pew poll underlines why the political impasse that led to the shutdown — now in its 26th day — has been so intractable. Among the 58 percent of respondents who oppose expanding the border wall in the Pew survey — the vast majority of them, 88 percent, told interviewers that they would find funding the wall unacceptable, even if it was the only way to end the shutdown. Meanwhile, even if the only way to end the shutdown was to pass a bill that doesn’t include the funding Trump has requested for the wall, nearly three-quarters of wall supporters (who make up 40 percent of overall respondents) would find that unacceptable.

While Washington displays little urgency to end the shutdown, the POLITICO/Morning Consult poll finds that few voters are feeling the pinch. Only one in 4, 25 percent, say the shutdown has had “a lot” or “some” impact on them or their family. A majority say it has either had “not much” impact (26 percent) or no impact at all (40 percent).

“The impact of the federal government shutdown has not yet resonated with many voters,” said Tyler Sinclair, Morning Consult’s vice president. “Two-thirds of voters say they have been affected ‘not much’ or ‘not at all’ by the government shutdown — including 76 percent of Republicans and 59 percent of Democrats.”

Voters do say, however, that they are worried about federal workers who aren’t getting paid during the shutdown. Nearly half, 48 percent, say this makes them “very concerned,” while another 27 percent are “somewhat concerned.”

The POLITICO/Morning Consult poll was conducted Jan. 11-14, surveying 1,984 registered voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.

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: https://politi.co/2st4mUZ | Crosstabs: https://politi.co/2RxCEFy