President Donald Trump’s motivations and actions in office appear to be driven more by his desire to do what’s best for him rather than what’s best for the United States, according to respondents’ opinions in a new poll.
Fifty-five percent say Trump is looking out for himself, a Fox News poll released on Wednesday demonstrated, while less than 2-in-5 voters said he’s trying to do what’s best for the country.
The poll comes from a news network Trump has at times been at odds with but, for the most part, has been supportive of and indeed influenced by in their programming, demonstrative by the number of tweets he often composes quoting personalities he sees on the air giving him high marks. Indeed, as Brian Stelter from CNN has pointed out, Trump’s relationship with the network is something else never before seen from a president.
“Experts say the back-scratching relationship between President Trump and Fox News is unlike anything in the history of American media,” Stelter wrote earlier this year. “Trump just keeps proving them right.”
It’s unlikely, however, that he’ll quote the findings from this latest Fox News poll, especially when it comes to other questions that respondents to the poll answered.
🚨 NEW Fox News Poll shows a new high of 51% want Trump impeached & removed from office, another 4% want him impeached but not removed, & 40% oppose impeachment altogether. In July, 42% favored impeachment removal, 5% said impeach but don’t remove him, & 45% opposed impeachment. pic.twitter.com/Atv2aVbfjw
— Pat Ward (@WardDPatrick) October 9, 2019
A majority, in fact, from the Fox News poll said that Trump deserved to be impeached, with 51 percent saying as much and only 43 percent in opposition to the idea. Of those who opposed impeachment, 8 percent said they support the House impeaching Trump but the Senate not voting to remove him from office.
Overall, respondents gave Trump low marks on the issue driving the impeachment inquiry: the Ukraine scandal, in which Trump allegedly pressured Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to pursue an investigation into Trump’s potential political foe in 2020, former vice president Joe Biden.
When asked whether the Ukraine scandal was troubling to them, 51 percent said it was “extremely” or “very” troubling to see Trump try to pressure a foreign leader into investigating Biden, while 44 percent said it was only “somewhat” or not at all troubling for him to do so. Conversely, only 36 percent said Biden’s actions, which Trump alleges are worth investigating, are “extremely” or “very” troubling, while 58 percent said they weren’t.
The findings go against what Trump himself tweeted earlier in the day, where he said only 25 percent of Americans find his actions worthy of impeachment. It’s unclear where Trump got that figure from, as there doesn’t appear to be any poll that shows that low of support for impeachment.