Nearly half of Republicans and two-thirds of independents now think President Trump should stop using Twitter, according to a new survey that shows about one in four GOP voters believe the president is hurting the Republican agenda.
Forty-nine percent of Republicans say Mr. Trump should quit tweeting, an increase from the 36 percent who thought that way in January in polling by the independent digital marketing firm Fluent.
Among independents, 64 percent think the president should stop tweeting, double the percentage of independents who said so in January. The percentage of Democrats who say Mr. Trump should get off social media has risen over that period from 66 percent to 84 percent.
The president, who often tweets as much as 10 times per day, has said it’s an important way for him to communicate directly with Americans and to bypass the mainstream media.
Criticism of the president’s tweeting, which often calls out Capitol Hill Republicans, isn’t confined to the party’s rank and file.
Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, said in an interview that aired Thursday that he’d urge Mr. Trump to stop tweeting and attacking Republicans if he were to talk to the president again.
“We’ve got enough people who attack them,” he told MSNBC, referring to his party.
Mr. McCain also said the role of the press — another frequent target of Mr. Trump’s tweeting — is “more important than ever before.”
“I hate the press, OK, but the fact is without a free press in this country, the pillar of democracy is destroyed,” he said.
But on a wide range of other matters, Mr. Trump received high marks from Republicans in the survey, including the economy (75 percent approval), immigration (67 percent), foreign policy/terrorism (71 percent) and religious freedom (76 percent).
The Fluent survey was conducted online with 1,350 adult respondents on Oct. 16 before this week’s terrorist attack in New York City.
But 22 percent of Republicans said they think Mr. Trump is hurting the GOP agenda, and 31 percent of Republicans say they don’t know whether the president is helping or hurting. Among independents, 35 percent said Mr. Trump is hurting the GOP agenda and 53 percent don’t know.
Forty-seven percent of Republicans said they are likely to vote for Mr. Trump in 2020, while 24 percent said they are unlikely to vote for him. Forty-one percent of independents said they’re not likely to vote for him for re-election, while 14 percent of independents said they probably would vote for him.
Nine percent of Democrats said they probably would vote for Mr. Trump in 2020, while 73 percent said they wouldn’t.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
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