President Trump’s time in office has been a roller coaster of startling tweets, controversies and scandals. …
Through all this, Trump can seem like Teflon: impervious to scandal. Democrats already dislike him, Republican partisans remain loyal, and Americans’ minds are hard to change. This dynamic can trouble those who believe public opinion should respond to new information. If scandalous news no longer affects voters’ opinions of politicians, politicians will be less likely to care if they are involved in a scandal. …
Given a fractured news media and a polarized public, Trump’s nearly immovable approval may not seem surprising. But we still wanted to see whether scandals can influence voters’ opinions, or if partisanship is too strong for scandals to influence opinions. CONT.
Joshua P. Darr, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Kathleen Searles, et al, Monkey Cage