The Elon University Poll surveyed more than 500 N.C. voters about whether they viewed the president's use of Twitter as appropriate, and his claim that the media is the "enemy of the American people."
President Donald Trump frequently turns to Twitter to share his triumphs, frustrations and opinions. His use of Twitter is unprecedented for an American president, and also unpopular in North Carolina, according to the most recent Elon Poll. .
The president’s use of the popular social media channel is deemed “inappropriate” by nearly three-fourths of N.C. voters, according to the Elon Poll. That disapproval for his ample tweeting cuts across party lines during a time when Democrats and Republicans agree on few things.
Read the complete Elon Poll final report and methodology
There’s a clearer split among N.C. voters on one tweet in particular — the February 2017 claim by President Trump on Twitter that “The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!” The Elon Poll found that 54 percent of all voters disagree, though the poll found clear differences of opinion about the claim based on party, race and age.
The latest Elon Poll conducted April 18-21 of more than 500 N.C. voters found that 73 percent viewed Trump’s use of Twitter as inappropriate, compared to 18 percent who view it as appropriate. Another 5 percent said they didn’t know, while an an additional 4 percent said “it depends.”
A closer look at how different groups weighed in shows broad disapproval for the president’s use of Twitter across differing groups of people. An overwhelming share of Democrats — 94 percent – find it inappropriate, as do 73 percent of independent voters. Among Republicans, half disagree with how Trump uses Twitter, while 37 percent say they find his Twitter use appropriate.
Black voters are much more likely to find the president’s use of Twitter inappropriate, with 88 percent disapproving compared to 69 percent of white voters. Men and women disapprove in similar numbers, with 71 percent and 74 percent, respectively, finding his Twitter use inappropriate.
The younger a person, the more likely that person is to find the president’s use of the socia media channel inappropriate, according to the poll results. Eighty one percent of Millennials, those born after 1981, found it inappropriate, compared to roughly 71 percent for Gen Xers (born between 1965 and 1980) and Baby Boomers (born between 1945 and 1964), followed by 56 percent of the “Silent Generation,” the name given to the generation born between the 1920s and the end of World War II.
As for Trump’s February 2017 tweet about the media, a majority of N.C. voters — 55 percent — disagreed with the claim the media is “the enemy of the American people” while 39 percent agreed and 6 percent said they didn’t know.
The results from the Elon Poll show voter opinions on the claim corresponded to party affiliation, with 90 percent of Democrats disagreeing that idea that the media is “the enemy of the American people” and 76 percent of Republican agreeing.
Black voters were more likely to disagree, with 76 percent rebuking the claim compared to 48 percent of white voters. Women were slightly more likely to disagree (58 percent) than men (51) with Trump’s claim about the media, as were Baby Boomers (59 percent) and Gen Xers (58). Fifty three percent of Millennials disagreed with the statement, while 44 percent of the Silent Generation disagreed.
These highlighted results are part of an initial release of results from the spring 2017 Elon Poll. Full results are available here.