Most voters disapprove of Trump’s Jewish ‘loyalty’ comment: poll

Most voters disapprove of President Trump’s remarks calling American Jews who vote for Democrats disloyal, according to a new poll released Wednesday.

The Morning Consult/Politico poll found that 59 percent of voters disapproved of Trump’s remarks, including 56 percent of independents and 25 percent of Republicans surveyed. Eighty-six percent of Democrats said they disapproved of Trump’s comments, according to the poll.

The poll comes after Trump last week said he thought Jewish people who voted for Democrats showed “either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”{mosads}

Trump didn’t directly state to whom the disloyalty was being shown. 

The comment was widely denounced as anti-Semitic by Jewish groups and Democratic lawmakers for questioning the loyalty of Jewish people in the U.S. The groups said Trump’s comment falsely suggested Jews have a dual loyalty claim and played on anti-Semitic tropes.

The president’s comments also follow his push last week for Israel to block Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (Minn.) from visiting the country because of their support for a boycott of the nation. The move and his support of it were also condemned by some Jewish groups.

More Jews have voted for Democratic candidates than Republicans in recent elections, according to exit poll data.

In 2016, 71 percent of voters who identified as Jewish voted for Hillary Clinton, while 23 percent voted for Trump. And in 2018, 79 percent of Jewish voters said they voted for Democrats in House races compared to 17 percent who said they backed Republicans, according to NBC News. 

The poll surveyed 1,987 registered voters from Aug. 23 to Aug. 25 and has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.