NBC’s chief data analyst Steve Kornacki revealed Sunday that Donald Trump might be losing his grip over his own party.
Kornacki joined Kristen Welker on Meet the Press, and shocked the anchor with what a new poll showed about previously “unmovable” MAGA supporters.
Kicking off the stats with what was “politically a tough ending of the year for Republicans and for President Trump,” Kornacki began with the president’s general approval rating.
The polls showed Trump at 42 percent approval, down from 45 percent in April, with the data expert explaining that “his approval rating has existed in a pretty narrow range the entire time both terms he’s been in office.”
Kornacki then got deeper into the numbers, which showed that the year has seen some clear shifts within the GOP.
“I think maybe more worryingly for Trump, though, here, when you look at his approval rating—look inside his own party,” he said.
“Now, overall it’s close to a 90 percent approval rating with Republicans, but the intensity, how about this? The folks who say they don’t just approve, they strongly approve.”
The stats for “strong approval” within the Republican Party showed a wide gulf, with 70 percent of people who identified as “MAGA GOP” strongly approving their leader, compared to only 35 percent of those identifying as traditional Republicans.
“And Kristen, that’s a change from the start of the year here, with 78 percent strongly from MAGA, 38 percent traditional Republicans,” Kornacki added.
Host Welker noted: “So this is really one to watch, because historically the MAGA base has been unmovable.”
“Yeah, and one thing we should note on this too, Kristen, this is an online poll, this is looking at all adults, not just registered voters… but that’s significant, certainly, if that’s something you start seeing across the board,” Kornacki said.
The number cruncher moved on to MAGA itself and identified that fewer people aligned themselves with Trump now than at the beginning of the year.
“The other thing here, along these same lines, just look at the composition of the Republican Party. We asked Republicans, ‘Do you identify more with MAGA, or with just the Republican Party itself?’” he explained.
Kornacki’s results showed that 50 percent of the party identifies as MAGA, with the other half aligning with the general GOP.
He noted that in April MAGA was seven points higher at 57 percent, but had now lost its clear majority within the Republican Party. “So moving more away from that, potentially,” Kornacki surmized.
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