Go to contents

'Trump's golden time is almost coming to an end'

Posted August. 30, 2016 06:58,   

Updated August. 30, 2016 07:10

한국어

U.S. poll agency Morning Consult said on Sunday that the support rates of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate Donald Trump were 43 percent and 40 percent, respectively, reducing the gap to 3 percentage points. The disparity has been reduced to half the figure before email revelations threatened to overtake Hillary's campaign. However, experts say Trump's golden time to reverse the situation is almost coming to an end.

Through its article entitled "Trump might already be out of time," the U.S.-based Political-journalism organization Politico said, "With negative perceptions hardened, his late adjustments on policy and rhetoric could sway too few people to matter." According to Quinnipiac University's release of its poll results on August 24, 90 percent of the respondents has decided who to support and will not change it.

Trump is also struggling from getting support from the favorable Catholic voting constituency that has been playing the role of swing vote. "A new poll from the Public Religion Research Institute released this week shows him down 23 points, 55-32," the Washington Post said. "That’s because they comprise about one-quarter of voters in the United States (25 percent in 2012 exit polls) and are about as big a voting bloc as non-whites (28 percent) and independents (29 percent)."

Being aware of soaring Hispanic voters, who are mostly Catholic, Trump is showing a back and forth action as he changes existing pledges regarding immigrant deportation. At a speech in Iowa on Saturday, he said he would quickly start kicking out immigrants who committed crimes from the day he becomes president, adding they will include many illegal immigrants who went to jail but released in the Obama and Clinton administrations. At the CNN interview last Thursday, however, when he was asked whether he will expel illegal immigrants who did not commit crime, Trump avoided direct reply saying the answer could possibly be "yes" but let's see.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that Democrats are coveting Republicans in the Senate (Republican 54 seats, Democrats 44, independent 2), and in the House of Representatives (Republican 247 seats, Democrats 188) where Republicans have secured the maximum of seats. It added that after aggregating the opinions of analysts of the situations at both parties, the Democratic Party is expected to show rapid progress even in Kansas City, San Diego, Orlando, and Minneapolis where Republicans had easily overwhelmed.



워싱턴=이승헌 특파원ddr@donga.com