A majority of Americans say they are now more confident in President-elect Donald Trump after last Tuesday’s election, with respondents largely divided based on whether they supported Mr. Trump or Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Fifty-one percent said they are “more confident” in Mr. Trump, compared to 40 percent who said less confident and 9 percent who said there was no difference or they didn’t have an opinion, according to the Gallup survey released Wednesday.
The 51 percent expressing more confidence in Mr. Trump post-election is in line with the 54 percent who said the same of President George W. Bush after the 2000 election and the 53 percent who said so about former President Clinton after the 1992 election.
However, 40 percent also said they were less confident in Mr. Trump, which was higher than the 28 percent for Mr. Bush and 26 percent for Mr. Clinton.
Ninety-five percent of Trump voters said they’re more confident in him now, compared to just 19 percent of those who supported Mrs. Clinton. Three-quarters of Hillary Clinton voters said they’re now less confident in Mr. Trump.
Sixty percent of men said they’re now more confident in Mr. Trump, compared to 42 percent of women. And 61 percent of whites said they’re more confident in Mr. Trump, compared to 27 percent of nonwhites.
Mr. Trump is linked to Mr. Clinton and Mr. Bush in that he is in line to fall short of securing a majority of the popular vote during his first successful presidential election campaign, though Mr. Bush did so during his 2004 re-election campaign.
With Mr. Trump also in line to lose the popular vote to Mrs. Clinton, as Mr. Bush did in 2000 to Democratic nominee Al Gore, some Democrats say it’s now time to abolish the Electoral College.
Mr. Trump said if the election had indeed been based on the popular vote, he would have had a different campaign strategy and would have won more easily.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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