Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said during a speech in New Hampshire Thursday that if he is elected, anyone in the United States convicted of killing a police officer will receive the death penalty. Just above half of Republican primary voters (51%) gave Trump a thumbs up, and 26% did not, which was also almost the same as in the previous poll.
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The WSJ/NBC poll also showed that a majority of Americans find Trump’s rhetoric offensive. The poll was conducted before and after Trump released his proposal, but the question about the ban was conducted entirely after Trump revealed his plan. Republicans, however, were far less put off. A Fox News survey of South Carolina Republicans found an 8 percent increase in support for Trump following those comments. Twenty-two percent of Democratic voters are excited and 54 percent are optimistic, while only 23 percent said they were concerned or scared. The United States, like most of the global community, refuses to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and says the city’s status must be resolved in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
The political divide may reflect partisan opinions of Muslims.
Among Republicans, however, only 43% have a favourable opinion, while 48% have an unfavourable opinion of Muslims.
Among those to condemn Mr Trump was the boxing legend Muhammad Ali, who issued a statement calling for people to “stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda”.
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Trump is leading all Republican presidential candidates by a wide margin, even going up in the polls after his Muslim ban comments. Bloomberg/Purple Strategies surveyed 605 likely general election voters online through an opt-in panel representative of the population on December 8.
