41 Percent of White Evangelicals Say They Support Trump Regardless If He Delivers What They Want
Forty-one percent of white evangelicals said they back President Donald Trump regardless if he delivers on the policies that matter to them.
A poll released Sunday by CBS News measured Americans' attitudes toward the president based on a variety of issues, such as the Russian election meddling investigation, and others.
Of the 2,420 adults surveyed by YouGov between July 26-28, 28 percent said that they would describe themselves as a born-again or evangelical Christians, while 8 percent said they are not sure if they fall into that category.
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On the question of feelings about Trump, 41 percent of white evangelicals agreed with the statement, "I am a strong Trump supporter, period," while 29 percent chose the option that they back Trump but he has to "deliver what I want" to maintain that support. Another 13 percent said that they oppose the president now, "but could reconsider him if he does a good job." On the other hand, 17 percent of white evangelicals declared that they are "strongly against Trump, period."
White evangelicals also felt positive about Trump on various issues, with 73 percent insisting he is doing a good job when it comes to handling the economy, while 27 percent disagreed.
Opinions were more split when it comes to how Trump is handling the Russia investigation, with 59 percent of white evangelicals backing the president, compared to 41 percent who say he is doing a bad job.
When it comes to the president's personal behavior, though no specific examples were offered, 45 percent of white evangelicals said that he is acting as they would expect. Thirty-two percent said his behavior is better than they expected, and 23 percent said that it is worse.
On the question of whether Trump is "looking out for people like you," 39 percent of white evangelicals said that yes he is, "a lot." Another 28 percent answered "some" to the question, 18 percent said "not much," and 15 percent suggested he is not looking out for them at all.
When asked a series of questions about who they trust for accurate information, 56 percent of white evangelicals said they trust Trump. Slightly more, 61 percent, said they trust friends and family. Only 24 percent said they trust the "mainstream news media."
The survey's margin of error at the 95 percent confidence level was 2.5 percentage points.
Some, such as Christian activist and author Shane Claiborne, have strongly criticized evangelicals for supporting Trump. He asked NPR back in April "how can a group of people known for emphasizing family values back a twice-divorced, sometimes vulgar and racially divisive figure like Trump?"
Claiborne argued that "it should grieve us that when people hear the word evangelical, they think anti-gay, anti-women, anti-environment, pro-guns, pro-military, pro-death penalty."
"We've become known often for what we're against more than what we're for," he said, positioning that "many evangelicals have lifted up Donald Trump above Jesus."
Others, such as Johnnie Moore, an evangelical public relations executive and one of Trump's informal advisers, have insisted that evangelical leaders do in fact criticize the president behind closed doors.
Moore, who is also a Christian Post senior editorial adviser, noted in May that Trump has formed "a genuine conversation, a genuine relationship" with some evangelical leaders.
"By the way, it is not that this community doesn't criticize him," he added, however. "The Bible tells me that, 'Faithful are the words of a friend.' That doesn't say that it has to be in bold 32-point font on the front page of The New York Times."
