… “The people of the country” don’t agree with Trump on the shutdown or on the wall. We looked at this last month, considering polling that showed that most Americans don’t support building a wall and that most think a shutdown should be avoided.
Trump’s discussion of what the American people want, though, is often a shorthand meant to refer to a specific subset of the American population: his base of supporters. There certainly are people who want the wall to be built, most of whom are Republicans and most of whom approve of the job Trump is doing. If that’s your definition of “the people,” then, well, sure. The people want the wall to be built.
It’s worth asking how many people that encompasses. Or, really, we can invert the question: Of Trump’s fervent base of support, what percentage thinks that this particular fight is one that is critical to pick? CONT.
Philip Bump, Washington Post