Poll still finds more Americans blame Trump, GOP for shutdown than Democrats

[Thiệu Ngô]

Respondents cited Trump and Republicans' refusal to compromise.

By Ivan Pereira

Two days into the latest federal government shutdown, Americans are already focusing their frustrations at Capitol Hill over the disarray, with Trump and Republicans getting more of the blame, according to a new poll.

Roughly 47% of Americans say President Donald Trump and the GOP are responsible for the shutdown, according to a Washington Post poll released Thursday.

Poll respondents said the president and his party were responsible for the shutdown for refusing to compromise while having full control over Congress and also Trump's actions.

The survey, which was conducted Wednesday, found that 30% of Americans said Democrats were responsible for the shutdown while 23% said they weren't sure who was to blame.

People who blamed Democrats criticized the party for refusing to compromise or said that it always opposes Trump, according to the Post.

Some of those respondents repeated false claims made by Trump and Republicans that Democrats are pushing for health benefits for immigrants without legal status.

The majority of Americans, 66%, were either very concerned or somewhat concerned about the shutdown, the Post poll found.

The poll found that eight out of 10 Democrats and 7 out of 10 independents were concerned about the shutdown. By comparison, less than half of Republicans were concerned, according to the poll.

When it came to sticking points that led to the shutdown, the poll found that 47% of Americans want both an extension of health insurance updates and for Democrats to demand it.

The Post surveyed 1,010 people and the margin of error was +/- 3.5 percentage points.

The poll results were somewhat different from another conducted before the shutdown started.

A New York Times/Siena College poll published Tuesday found that around a third of registered voters would blame both parties equally if the government shut down.