A cutout of U.S. President Donald Trump is pictured as supporters take part in a protest against the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election in Atlanta, Georgia, November 21, 2020.
Chris Aluka Berry | Reuters
Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election. Nearly every supporter of President Donald Trump thinks otherwise, according to a new CNBC/Change Research poll.
As the president makes unsubstantiated claims about electoral malfeasance and sows doubts about vote tallies, only 3% of Trump voters surveyed said they accept Biden’s victory as legitimate, the survey released Monday found. A staggering 73% of respondents consider Trump the legitimate winner. Another 24% said they are not sure.
A mere 3% of Trump voters believe he should concede to Biden and start the peaceful transfer of power. Another 31% want the president to fight in court until states certify results. Two-thirds, or 66%, think Trump should never concede.
The findings will have little practical effect on the president-elect Biden’s path to taking office on Jan. 20. He will win the White House with 306 electoral votes, according to NBC News, flipping the states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona along the way. The Trump campaign has repeatedly lost in court as it fails to show irregularities affected the results, and a hand count of votes in Georgia reaffirmed Biden’s victory.
But the poll underscores the potentially bigger harm Trump’s lies about the vote tallies have done to public faith in the electoral process. The president appears to have convinced many of his supporters he lost unfairly, even as state officials and judges have repeatedly shot down claims of fraud and wrongdoing.
More than 73 million people voted for Trump in the election. More than 79 million cast ballots for Biden.
The poll surveyed 1,203 people who voted for Trump in 2020 nationwide from Wednesday to Saturday. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.83 percentage points.
The vast majority of Trump voters — 81% — said they would not give Biden a chance as president. Only 19% said they would.
Even so, Trump supporters backed some of the policies the former vice president could pursue in the White House. Nearly all, or 91%, of respondents said they support proposals to require the federal government to buy products from American companies and make tax changes to encourage the rerouting of supply chains to the U.S.
Three-fourths back plans to expand rural health care options and broadband access, along with proposals to help small and mid-sized farms compete with large companies. Seven-in-10 said they back plans to create jobs by fixing infrastructure and investing in sustainable energy.
Two of Biden’s economic plans were least popular among people who voted for the president. A mere 24% of Trump voters support hiking taxes on corporations and people who make more than $400,000 per year. Only 13% back raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Loyalty to Trump runs deep among the respondents. Asked with whom they would identify if the president left the GOP, 72% responded Trump’s party, while 28% answered the Republican Party.
