Poll: Most Americans call Trump's tweets targeting 4 congresswomen 'un-American' - USA TODAY

Susan Page USA TODAY

Published 6:37 AM EDT Jul 17, 2019

WASHINGTON – A clear majority of Americans say President Trump's tweets targeting four minority congresswomen were "un-American," according to a new USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll. But most Republicans say they agreed with his comments, an illustration of the nation's sharp partisan divide on issues of patriotism and race.

More than two-thirds of those aware of the controversy, 68%, called Trump's tweets offensive. Among Republicans alone, however, 57% said they agreed with tweets that told the congresswomen to go back to their "original" countries, and a third "strongly" agreed with them. All four lawmakers are American citizens; three were born in the United States.

That finding may help explain the reluctance of GOP leaders and most GOP members of Congress to castigate the president for tweets and comments in recent days targeting the congresswomen, outspoken progressives who are among his sharpest critics on Capitol Hill. Only four Republicans joined House Democrats Tuesday in passing a resolution condemning Trump's comments as "racist."

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That said, the dispute could be costly for Trump among some key voters in his bid for a second term in next year's presidential election. Independents by more than 2-1 said his tweets were "un-American." Three-fourths of the women polled called them offensive.

The furor began Sunday morning with a string of presidential tweets aimed at freshwomen Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachuetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. Trump's disparaging comments and the fierce responses from the four congresswomen and other Democrats have overwhelmed attention to other pressing issues, including fundamental changes in asylum policy, the treatment of undocumented migrants at the border, and a looming deadline to raise the debt ceiling and reach a budget deal.

That could presage a 2020 presidential campaign that is ignited more by cultural conflicts than by economic concerns or foreign policy issues.

The USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll of 1,005 people, taken online Monday and Tuesday, has a credibility interval of 3.5 percentage points.

“A majority see President Trump’s tweets as un-American,” said Cliff Young, president of Ipsos Public Affairs. “However, there’s a huge partisan difference in how we interpret what’s racist in this country.”

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Two-thirds of those surveyed, 65%, said that telling minority Americans to "go back where they came from" was a racist statement. Nearly three-fourths of Democrats strongly agreed with that. Republicans were inclined to agree that the comment was racist, but only by a narrow margin, 45% to 34%.

Republicans were much more skeptical of charges of racism generally. Seventy percent agreed that "people who call others 'racist' usually do so in bad faith." On that question, Democrats were split: 31% agreed; 35% disagreed.

When it came to patriotism, an overwhelming majority — 72% of Democrats, 93% of Republicans — said they were proud to be an American. While 75% of Republicans also said they were "proud of America right now," however, just 29% of Democrats agreed on that.

There was a broad consensus among those surveyed that it was patriotic "to point out where America falls short and try to do better."

But in response to a separate question, 52% of Republicans said that those who criticize America are "un-American." Just 17% of Democrats felt that way.

The poll showed the degree to which the United States remains a nation of immigrants. Forty-one percent said that they had a parent or grandparent who had immigrated from another country, or that they himself had done so. There was virtually no partisan difference on that question: 45% of Democrats, 43% of Republicans.

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