By Susan Page USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Republicans may be ready for a fling with Donald Trump, but a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows they have reservations about installing him in the White House.
His candidacy faces broad resistance: 63% of Americans, including 46% of Republicans, say they definitely will not vote for Trump for president. In comparison, 46% of Americans say they definitely will not vote for President Obama — significantly lower but itself a hurdle to winning the 2012 election.
Still, Trump has managed to command center stage in the race, garnering enormous attention as he weighs whether to form a campaign committee and schedules trips to Iowa and New Hampshire, states with early contests.
Though he initially got attention by expressing doubts whether Obama was born in the USA, that issue is not driving his support. Among those who say they definitely or might vote for Trump, about a third question whether the president was born in the USA.
Support from the “birthers” is stronger for Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney than for Trump. The issue has persisted even though Hawaii has released an official Certificate of Live Birth showing Obama was born there, a fact confirmed in non-partisan investigations by FactCheck.org and others.
Still, in the USA TODAY poll, only 38% of Americans say Obama definitely was born in the USA, and 18% say he probably was. Fifteen percent say he probably was born in another country, and 9% say he definitely was born elsewhere. Republicans are inclined to say the president was born abroad by 43%-35%.
For what it’s worth, not everyone is convinced Trump was born in the USA either: 43% say he definitely was born here, and 20% say he probably was; 7% say he definitely or probably was born in another country. Nearly three in 10 say they don’t know enough to say.
The poll of 1,013 adults, taken Wednesday to Saturday, has a margin of error of +/–4 percentage points.
Those surveyed rank former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee highest among the major Republican contenders as someone who would be a “good” or “great” president in office, at 29%. Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney follow at 25% each. Trump is at 22%. Trump ranks lower even though he is among the best known of the candidates; only Palin is more familiar.
Trump’s dismal favorable-unfavorable rating underscores the uphill climb he would face as a candidate. Thirty-six percent of Americans have a favorable impression of him; 53% have an unfavorable one. Among Republicans, he stands at 51% favorable-37% unfavorable, a more negative assessment than anyone else in the GOP field.
Though more than six in 10 of Americans say they definitely will not vote for Trump in 2012, that’s an improvement from his standing in a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll in October 1999, when he considered running as a third-party candidate for president. Then, nearly eight in 10 said they wouldn’t vote for him.
Source:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/2011-04-25-trump-president-poll.htm
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