Support for Trump May Reveal Something About Your Finances

Americans who view Donald Trump favorably have more financial anxiety than those who view the Republican presidential nominee unfavorably, a new Gallup poll shows.

The poll results are based on interviews with a random sample of more than 112,000 adults living across the country. Each participant was asked two questions from a list designed to gauge financial insecurity.

For example, participants with a favorable opinion of Trump were:

• 23 percentage points more likely to say they are not feeling better about their financial situation these days, compared with participants with an unfavorable view of Trump.
• 17 points more likely to say they do not feel good about the amount of money they have to spend.
• 13 points more likely to say they are cutting back on spending.

This gap remained even after Gallup took economic factors like participants’ income and local cost of living into consideration.

Gallup also considered that Republicans and conservatives have been reporting higher levels of financial insecurity than Democrats and liberals since at least 2013. The polling organization explains:

… these party and ideological differences do not account for the gap in financial insecurity between those who do and do not favor Trump. Republicans who view Trump favorably are still more likely to express economic insecurity on each item than Republicans who view him unfavorably.

For example, Republican participants with a favorable opinion of Trump were:

• 15 percentage points more likely to say they are not feeling better about their financial situation these days, compared with Republicans with an unfavorable opinion of Trump.
• 14 points more likely to say that they do not feel good about the amount of money they have to spend.

So what’s behind the relationship between financial insecurity and views on Trump? Gallup reports that is “unclear,” speculating:

It may be that there are unmeasured economic factors or experiences not considered here that explain the correlation, or the financial insecurity gap may be attributable to other differences — such as knowledge, media consumption, cultural practices or some other factor — between those who favor Trump and those who do not.

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