Nearly half of President Trump Donald John TrumpObama calls on Senate not to fill Ginsburg's vacancy until after election Planned Parenthood: 'The fate of our rights' depends on Ginsburg replacement Progressive group to spend M in ad campaign on Supreme Court vacancy MORE's supporters say he mischaracterized Democrats who refused to applaud during his State of the Union address when he called them treasonous, according to a new Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey.

The survey from the left-leaning group found that 48 percent of Trump voters say Democrats were not being "treasonous" when they did not applaud the president's remarks to Congress last month, while 36 percent say they were.

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Among all voters, just 20 percent say Democrats were being disloyal to the country by not applauding Trump, while 68 percent say the president was wrong to say that.

When asked whether coordinating with Russia to win a presidential election was more serious than not applauding the State of the Union address, 63 percent of survey respondents said it was more serious, while 14 percent said not applauding was a more intense sign of disloyalty.

During a speech in Ohio earlier this month, Trump attacked Democratic lawmakers for not applauding during his address to Congress.

"Can we call that treason? Why not?" the president said. "They certainly didn't seem to love our country very much."

The White House has defended the president's remarks, saying Trump was being “tongue-in-cheek,” and press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that Trump was “clearly joking."

The PPP survey of 687 registered voters was conducted Feb. 9-11 and has an overall margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.