Surprise. It’s not just Muslims that need to be blocked for entering the United States. It’s also gays that should be stopped at the border, or at least according to a third of Donald Trump supporters.
Hidden with the results of the Public Policy poll released on Wednesday, as the primary in South Carolina takes center stage, there was some shocking news from Trump’s base supporters. According to the poll, 31% of voters in the Trump camp support “banning homosexuals from entering the United States.”
“It’s shocking enough to even see that question on a poll,” said Ron Sterling, a political consultant from Washington. “But to see how many Trump supporters were in favor of it I’m certain surprised even Donald Trump.”
Equally as amazing is that supporters of Republican evangelical contender Ted Cruz, whose anti-LGBT stance is the stuff of legend, only 17% want to ban gays from America. An equal amount on the Marco Rubio team felt the same way. Among Jeb Bush supporters, 12% thought gays should be blocked from travel, while only 7% of John Kasich and Ben Carson supporters agreed.
While it was once easy to dismiss Donald Trump and make his candidacy the brunt jokes, the depth of his fan base continues to grow across all demographics. He is supported by 41% of “somewhat conservative voters,” 40% of young voters, 38% with men, 36% with self-identified Republicans, 35% with Evangelicals, 35% with middle-aged voters, 34% with non-Evangelicals, 31% with women, 30% with self-identified independents, 30% with “very conservative voters, 30% with seniors, and 29% with moderates. In South Carolina, he has a substantial lead across all those groups.
“Donald Trump doesn’t seem to have lost any support in South Carolina following last Saturday night’s debate,” according to Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling. “He has a pretty consistent across-the-board lead with the different segments of the Republican electorate”—this despite the fact that 29% of voters say they might change their minds between now and Election Day.
“Trump benefits from having supporters who are pretty resoute though—77% of them say they will definitely vote for him, compared with 76% for Cruz and 62% for Rubio,” Debnam said.
Given the Trump supporters dislike Muslims, with many of them wanting to make the religion illegal the U.S. and close all Mosques, it comes as little surprise that there are few subjects that his camp won’t broach.
Trump has even entered his opinion on the sudden death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia while talking to conspiracy nut and far-right radio host Michael Savage.
“Scalia: was he murdered? I know it’s pretty brutal to say this, but this is going to get bigger and bigger,” Savage asked. “We need a commission, we need an autopsy before the body is disposed of. What do you think of that?”
“I’m hearing it’s a big topic, the question… it’s a horrible topic.They say they found a pillow on his face. It’s a pretty unusual place to find a pillow. I can’t give you an answer… I literally just heard it.”
Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time Trump threw his weight behind a conspiracy theory – he was a prominent backer of theories that Barack Obama was not eligible to be President because he was ‘secretly born in Kenya.’ But then, like we’ve often said, where Trump is concerned, we’re ready for anything.
