Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: even though I tell people I do not approve of Donald Trump, I personally agree with him on certain issues.

Strongly agree	24%
Somewhat agree	28%
Somewhat disagree	14%
Strongly disagree	34%

 

We asked Alaskans “do you tell people you do not approve of President Trump, but in private do personally agree with him on certain issues;” a majority of Alaskan likely voters said they at least somewhat agreed with the statement, while 48% disagreed (14% strongly disagreed, 34% somewhat disagreed). The question is something we currently track nationwide and regionally, and represents a way at trying to examine if some voters are afraid to admit they might agree with the president, even if they do not personally approve of him, which could also represent “silent” support for the president that is hard to identify with just the horse race or issue polling questions. 

In our Alaska poll most likely voters surveyed at least somewhat agreed with the idea of “silently” supporting Trump, but there were a few groups who deviated from the norm: full-time employees in the private sector (61% agreed/39% disagreed), Generation X—age 30-49 (60% agreed/40% disagreed); voters aged 35-54 (63% agreed/37% disagreed) and upper/middle income voters whose total household income is $75K-$99K annually (62% agreed/38% disagreed). These groups were more likely to agree with the above statement that they are likely to tell people they do not agree with Trump, while silently supporting the president on certain issues in private. 

Women (43% agreed/57% disagreed) were more likely than men (65% agreed/35% disagreed) to disagree they tell people they do not approve of Trump, while supporting him in private. When it came to age, Millennials aged 18-29 (47% agreed/53% disagreed) were more likely to disagree they “silently” support Trump than older voters—aged 50-64 (57% agree/43% disagree). 

Independents (52% strongly and somewhat agree combined, 49% strongly and somewhat disagree combined) were less prone to feeling they had to hide their support of Trump on certain issues than Republicans (73% strongly and somewhat agree combined, 27% strongly and somewhat disagree combined). Republicans were the most likely to agree about hiding their support of Trump on certain issues. This is fascinating because Alaska is a “red state.”