Trump's strategy for the government shutdown is a mess and most Americans aren't on board
- President Donald Trump kicked off the government shutdown by refusing to sign any funding bill that did not include money for a wall along the US-Mexico border.
- But most Americans aren't pleased with Trump using a shutdown as a negotiating tactic.
- According to an INSIDER poll, 54% of people believe Trump is the most to blame for the shutdown.
- Additionally 64% of people believed that shutting down the government is an inappropriate negotiating tactic.
President Donald Trump may want to come up with a new strategy in the government shutdown fight, because Americans aren't too pleased with the current tactics, according to a new poll.
The president first forced the government into a partial shutdown in December after suddenly changing his mind on a clean funding bill that did not include money for his long-promised wall along the US-Mexico border. And since the start of the shutdown, Trump has remained steadfast in his unwillingness to alter the demand for $5.7 billion in wall funding.
But according to an INSIDER poll, most Americans are placing the blame for the shutdown at the president's feet and don't appreciate Trump's hardline strategy.
According to a poll, a majority of Americans pin the blame on Trump for the shutdown with 54% saying the president deserves the most blame. Senate and House Democrats received the most blame from just 26% of Americans, getting 17% and 9% respectively.
Senate and House Republicans got just 5% of the blame while 16% of respondents were unsure who to blame.
We conducted a SurveyMonkey Audience poll on a national sample from January 15-16. We had 1,095 respondents for a margin of error of about +/-3.11%.
The amount of Americans who blame Trump for the shutdown is similar to a slew of other recent polls that showed most respondent pin the blame on the president.
Additionally, many Americans are not particularly pleased with Trump's decision to shut down the government in the first place. While Democrats have consistently demanded that the president reopen the government and then negotiate on wall funding, Trump has been unwilling to approve even a short-term funding bill with no wall money.
A whopping 64% of people surveyed said that shutting down the operation of the government was either an inappropriate or very inappropriate negotiating tactic, while just 15% thought the tactic was appropriate or very appropriate. 12% thought it was neither inappropriate nor appropriate.
Importantly, Trump's biggest platform to try and win over undecided Americans - the State of the Union address scheduled for the end of January - is not likely to be a game changer.
According to the poll, few undecided Americans regularly watch the State of the Union so the president may not be able to use the platform to win over many Americans.
Read more: Trump's State of the Union - whenever it is - won't bail him out of the government-shutdown mess»
Trump's attempt on Saturday to try and reach a compromise with Democrats is likely dead on arrival given the limited scope of the president's concessions, but it may signal that Trump is recognizing the losing position he currently occupies.
The shutdown is in its 29th day and is now by far the longest in the modern budget era. The shutdown is also starting to take its toll on everyday Americans and the 800,000 federal workers going without pay.
Concerns over airport security, food safety, food stamps, and more are starting to build. Federal employees are resorting to unemployment insurance, food banks, and GoFundMe fundraisers to make it through the shutdown.
In the poll, 24% of people identified as very or somewhat conservative, 29% as very or somewhat liberal, with the rest as slightly conservative or liberal, neither conservative nor liberal, or they'd rather not say.
SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by census data of age and gender. Respondents are incentivized to complete surveys through charitable contributions. Generally speaking, digital polling tends to skew toward people with access to the internet. SurveyMonkey Audience doesn't try to weight its sample based on race or income. Total 1,095 respondents, a margin of error plus or minus 3.11 percentage points with a 95% confidence level.