Under 20% Of Americans Approve Of Trump’s Dinner With Nick Fuentes, New Poll Finds

Topline

Less than a quarter of Americans from both parties approve of former President Donald Trump’s dinner with white supremacist Nick Fuentes, according to a new YouGov/Yahoo survey that also found less than half of Republicans think Trump is stronger now than he was in 2020, as the former president faces a string of controversies since announcing his 2024 candidacy.

Former President Donald Trump (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

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Key Facts

The survey showed 40% of U.S. adults have a favorable opinion of Trump, including 74% of Republicans and 19% of Democrats, while 55% have an unfavorable opinion of the former president (24% of Republicans and 78% of Democrats).

The poll, conducted December 1-5, includes responses from 1,635 adults, including about 32% who identify as Democrats and 27% who are Republicans (margin of error 2.6).

Just 17% of respondents said they approve of Trump’s dinner with Fuentes, including 20% of Democrats and 19% of Republicans, while 37% of all survey respondents said they disapprove of the dinner (52% of Democrats and 27% of Republicans) and 47% are undecided.

Less than half of Republicans surveyed (45%) think Trump is stronger now than he was in 2020, and 57% approve of him running, a slight decrease when compared to a Quinnipiac University poll taken in November that found 62% of Republicans think Trump running again is a good thing.

Contra

More than half of respondents (54%) said Trump’s dinner with Fuentes does not change their opinion of the former president, the YouGov/Yahoo poll found. Some 23% of respondents said it lowered their opinion of Trump (including 39% of Democrats and 13% of Republicans), and just 5% of Americans said the dinner raised their opinion of the former president.

Big Number

55.9%. That’s the percentage of Americans who view Trump unfavorably, according to FiveThirtyEight’s poll tracker, a slight decrease from the 53.9% who viewed him unfavorably on November 21, the day before his dinner with Fuentes.

Tangent

President Joe Biden’s favorability rating stands at 45%, the YouGov/Yahoo survey found, with 83% of Democrats viewing him favorably and 86% of Republicans viewing him unfavorably. That’s slightly better than the 42.1% average approval rating and 52.6% disapproval rating calculated by FiveThirtyEight’s poll tracker.

Key Background

Since announcing his third run for the presidency on November 15, Trump has faced a series of controversies that have led some of his former GOP allies to publicly denounce his actions on multiple occasions. Following his dinner with Fuentes and rapper Kanye West on November 22, prominent Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, former Vice President Mike Pence and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, spoke out against the move, which was viewed by many as a tacit endorsement of antisemitism (Trump claimed he didn’t know who Fuentes was and that Fuentes’ beliefs did not come up). Several Republicans again condemned Trump this weekend following his declaration on Truth Social that portions of the Constitution should be revoked to reinstate him in the White House, despite there being no evidence of fraud in the 2020 election. During this week alone, his Trump Organization family business was convicted of tax fraud and the House committee investigating the January 6 riot indicated it is considering making criminal referrals to the Justice Department that could include Trump. And on Tuesday, Republican Herschel Walker’s loss in the Georgia Senate race capped off a string of defeats of Trump’s endorsed midterm candidates, adding to the blame Republicans have cast on the former president for the party’s disappointing midterm performance.