Nearly 7-in-10 voters say they think presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump ought to step down as chairman and president of the Trump Organization while he’s involved in politics, a new CNN/ORC Poll finds. The results come as Trump heads to Scotland for the grand re-opening of a golf course he owns there.
According to the poll, 69% say of voters say Trump ought to step down, 28% think he should continue to run his eponymous company.
There is broad, bipartisan agreement that Trump should step down, with 56% of Republicans, 71% of independents and 77% of Democrats saying so. Even among those who say they would vote for Trump in a head-to-head against Clinton, 55% say he ought to step aside while his career in politics continues.
Trump has recently raised questions about money raised by the Clinton Foundation while Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state. She has stepped down from the board of directors of the foundation while running for president, but her husband, Bill Clinton, remains active in the foundation’s affairs. Voters are less apt to think the former president ought to step away from his foundation than to say Trump should back away from his businesses — just 38% say he ought to do so while 60% think he can continue his work with the foundation.
Democrats largely say Bill Clinton should continue to work with the foundation, 83% say so, but among independents and Republicans, opinions are more closely divided, with independents tilting toward staying on (51% to 46% who say step down) and Republicans leaning toward stepping away (51% step down to 47% continue work).
There is also a gender gap in the question on whether Clinton should step away from the family’s foundation which is not evident in opinions on Trump and his business. While 69% of both men and women say Trump ought to step down, men (56%) are less likely to say Bill Clinton should continue his work with the foundation than are women (63%). Democratic-leaning women are particularly more likely than Democratic men to say he ought to continue in the position, 78% among Democratic women vs. 64% of Democratic men.
Over the last few days, both Trump and Clinton have delivered speeches outlining why they think their opponent shouldn’t be president, with Trump’s speech Wednesday including sharp attacks on Clinton’s family’s foundation and Clinton’s Tuesday address criticizing Trump’s business prowess.
Results from the same poll, conducted before those speeches and released earlier this week, found about half of voters say Trump and his campaign have unfairly attacked Clinton, while 36% say Clinton has unfairly attacked Trump.
The CNN/ORC Poll was conducted by telephone June 16-19 among a random national sample of 1,001 adults. The poll includes interviews with 891 registered voters. Results for registered voters have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
