Republicans are falling in line with Trump's push to reopen the economy after weeks of bipartisan support for staying-at-home, poll shows

• Republicans are swinging back towards Trump's position on reopening the economy, a Politico/Morning Consult tracking poll found.
• A poll conducted May 8-10 found 55% of Republican voters were more concerned about the economic impact of the coronavirus, while 38% were more concerned about the public health impact.
• That's a reversal from mid April, when Politico/Morning Consult found 51% of Republicans were more concerned about the public health impact, compared to 43% who more concerned about the economy.
• Overall, the poll released Wednesday found that a majority of registered voters — 56% — are still more concerned about the coronavirus' threat to public health than to the economy.
• The shift in Republican voters' opinion comes after weeks of President Trump speaking and tweeting about his desire for shutdown orders to lift and economic activity to resume.
• Insider polling found Republicans believe the coronovirus crisis will be over much sooner than Democrats do.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

For weeks, President Trump has pushed for states to lift their lockdown orders and economic activity to return to normal, even though public health experts warn that America is in for a long war against coronavirus and public opinion stood against him.

After weeks of bipartisan support for stay-at-home measures and social distancing restrictions, Republican voters have begun swing back towards Trump on the issue of support reopening, according to a Politico/Morning Consult tracking poll released Wednesday.

The shift in Trump's base has occured as he spent weeks speaking — and tweeting — about his desire for lockdown restrictions to end because of the strain they put on the economy, and Republican lawmakers began to follow his lead.

The poll of 1,994 registered voters found that 55% of Republican voters were more concerned about the economic impact of the coronavirus, while 38% were more concerned about the public health impact.

When the same question was asked of voters in mid-April, the responses were reversed: 51% of Republicans were more concerned about the public health impacts of coronavirus compared to 43% were more concerned about the economy.

And just 43% of Republicans believed it was more important for the government to address the health emergency than the economic one, down from 65% a month ago.

At the same time, public opinion overall remains in favor of coronavirus-related social distancing measures.

The Politico/Morning Consult poll found that 56% of voters overall were more worried about the public health impacts of coronavirus than the economic ones (34%). And voters 65 and older — the age demographic most at risk from the virus — were more concerned about the health aspect of the crisis than any other age group, with 60% naming it their primary worry.

The poll's margin of error was plus or minus two percentage points.

"As Congress reconvenes, a sharp political divide continues, as Republicans are increasingly more concerned with the pandemic's economic impact, though a plurality of voters feel the country is reopening too quickly," Tyler Sinclair, vice president at Morning Consult, told Politico.

Trump has not been shy about his desire to end the coronavirus-imposed shutdowns, even as public health experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, repeatedly cautions against rushing to reopen before the virus is adequately contained.

Though Trump cannot order states to lift their restrictions, he does have the power of the bully pulpit. As images of anti-lockdown protests emerged from several states, the president tweeted to "LIBERATE MICHIGAN" and "LIBERATE MINNESOTA".

During a May 5 presidential visit to an N95 factory in Arizona, Trump said that "we're reopening our country."

The president, aware that his fate in November is likely tied to how Americans perceive the economic and public health recovery from the coronavirus, has begun to campaign on a return to some version of normal. He and Vice President Mike Pence have begun venturing out of Washington for public events to tout the nation's response to the coronavirus. They are often conspicuously maskless.

Republican lawmakers and allies of the president have echoed his wishes. Last week, Sen. Ted Cruz got a haircut at a salon whose owner had faced jail time for defying Texas' stay at home order. The publicity event was documented on Cruz' social media feed and by national press outlets. Georgia's Republican Gov. Brian Kemp was one of the first states to announce it was lifting many of its business closures and stay-at-home orders, even as the state's coronavirus cases increased. The Republican governors of Florida and Iowa, both of whom have taken steps to reopen parts of their state, met with Trump in the Oval Office this month for photo-ops.

An Insider poll of 1,109 voters has found that likely Republicans believe that the coronavirus crisis will be over and schools, restaurants, and other businesses will be open far sooner than likely Democrats believe.

On April 28, likely Republican voters gave a median response of 78 days until reopening, putting a return to normalcy in mid-July. Likely Democratic voters, on the other hand, thought it would be a median of 126 days until the crisis was passed, putting their estimated reopening in mid-November.

The median voter who had not yet made up their mind about who to vote for in 2020 put a reopening date all the way in 2021.

Americans remain very wary of returning to everyday activities like dining at restaurants or getting haircuts, a recent Washington Post poll found, though Republicans expressed less discomfort with returning to these outings than Democrats did.

Walt Hickey contributed to this story.