Poll: White evangelical support for Trump at record high

The Hill/April 19, 2018

By Jacqueline Thomsen

White evangelical support for President Trump has reached a record high, according to a new poll by the Public Religion Research Institute.

Seventy-five percent of white evangelical respondents in the poll said they view Trump favorably, with just 22 percent saying they view him unfavorably.

That marks a significant gap of more than 30 percentage points more than Trump’s favorability among the general population, which the survey found was at 42 percent.

The president’s favorability with white evangelicals in the poll has steadily risen over time, with his previous high being at 74 percent in February 2017.

His favorability with the group hasn’t fallen below 65 percent since his inauguration, according to PRRI.

Evangelical leaders have served as advisers and surrogates for Trump throughout his presidency.

However, a group of evangelical Christian leaders plan to sit down with the president to discuss the $130,000 payment that Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, made to adult film star Stormy Daniels. The money was paid shortly before the election in 2016 to keep Daniels quiet about an alleged 2006 affair with Trump.

The Christian leaders say they're "very concerned" about the claims.

PRRI conducted bilingual phone interviews with 2,020 American adults from March 14-25, and the survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.