Republicans trust Donald Trump. Everyone else trusts the media.
That is the finding of a Quinnipiac University poll which shows a dramatic split between Republicans and other Americans when it comes to matters of trust.
Quinnipiac’s survey found that 52% of voters trust the media more than they trust Trump, while only 37% said they trusted Trump more. Among Democrats, 86% said they trusted the media more than the president.
But among Republican voters, the balance is flipped: 78% said they trusted Trump more than the media, while just 13% said they trusted the media more.
The poll suggests that Trump’s aggressive efforts to discredit the media over the last two years have had a profound effect not just on his base, but on Republican voters at large.
It also suggests that Trump’s attacks on the media — he recently called them the “enemy of the American people” — have drawn clear battle lines among the American public.
“The media, so demonized by the Trump administration, is actually a good deal more popular than President Trump,” said Tim Malloy, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.
There is also a profound split between college-educated white voters and non-college-educated white voters, with the former trusting the media more (55% to 37%) and the latter trusting Trump more (also 55% to 37%).
While white voters are generally split on the trust question, preferring the media by 46% to 45%, nonwhite voters trust the media far more, with 68% expressing trust in the media versus just 18% expressing trust for Trump.
Those divides are also reflected in the approval rating for Trump’s treatment of the media: 61% of American voters (and 92% of Democrats) disapprove of Trump’s treatment of the media, while 73% of Republicans approve of it.
Meanwhile, a total of 90% of American voters say it is “very important” or “somewhat important” “that the news media hold public officials accountable.”
