More than half of American voters believe President Trump has helped encouraged people with racist beliefs to express them, according to a new survey.
A Quinnipiac University poll published Tuesday found that 54 percent of voters believe Trump “has emboldened people who hold racist beliefs to express those beliefs publicly.”
The results of the survey closely mirror the results from another Quinnipiac University poll published July 3. That poll found that 55 percent of voters believed Trump had encouraged people with racist beliefs to be more open with them.
Seventy-eight percent of Democrats in Tuesday’s poll said Trump has emboldened people with racist beliefs, compared to just 25 percent of Republicans who said the same.
Trump has often been accused of racism during his time in politics. He sparked backlash last year when he blamed “both sides” for violence at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., that left one woman dead.
More recently, Trump has been accused of racism for harshly criticizing NFL players who have protested racial injustice, saying that Rep. Maxine Walters (D-Calif.) has a “low IQ” and questioning the intelligence of NBA star LeBron James and CNN’s Don Lemon.
On Tuesday, Trump took heat for the language he used in a tweet against former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, who recently published a tell-all memoir about her time in the administration.