When President Donald Trump signed the Executive order restricting access of Immigrants into the United states there was a general outcry.
There were protests, column inches of newspapers, statements of disagreement from celebrities, business owners, CEOs and regular people. This gave the impression that the decision was an unpopular one and that many Americans were not for it.
But was this really the case?
According to a poll carried out by Reuters/Ipsos, 49 percent of Americans said they approved of the executive order to ban citizens from seven mostly Muslim countries from entering the US while 41 percent reportedly disapproved.
53 percent of Democrats said they “strongly disagree” with the decision. This is in contrast with Republicans who had 51 percent saying they “strongly agree” with the ban, and were more than three times as likely to agree that “banning people from Muslim countries is necessary to prevent terrorism.”
A further breakdown showed that 31 percent of respondents said the ban made them feel safer while 26 percent said it made them feel less safe. 43 percent said they “didn’t know.”
72 percent of Democrats disagreed with the notion that the US should welcome Christian refugees, but not Muslim ones, while only 45 percent of Republicans disagreed.
68 percent of Republicans agreed that the travel ban is setting a “good example” of how to confront terrorism, while 70 percent of Democrats said it’s a bad example.
It has been a rather close-run poll, but it seems more Americans were okay with the ban. This is not to say it has not been heavily criticized in many quarters including notable Republican figures such as senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham.
The senators even released a joint statement condemning the move saying, “This executive order sends a signal, intended or not, that America does not want Muslims coming into our country,”.
You can check out a visual representation of the poll below.
