Most Utahns want Donald Trump to either stop tweeting altogether, or at least tweet less, a new UtahPolicy poll finds.
Trump, who takes office Jan. 20, is a frequent tweeter, often sending out his observations/critiques in the early hours of the morning when most Americans are asleep.
He’s used Twitter for all kinds of communications, often to the dismay of his top campaign and political advisers.
A Trump tweet is not just musings by an insomniac but can have real world consequences – like when Trump criticized an Indiana union leader, who then got death threats.
The new Dan Jones & Associates poll shows that 35 percent of Utahns want Trump to stop tweeting altogether.
And 36 percent want Trump to at least tweet less than is his custom.
Together, that makes up 71 percent of Utahns saying Trump needs to wean himself from the mass communication, 140-character social media platform in some manner.
Jones finds that 11 percent of Utahns actually want Trump to tweet more (who are these people?), while 18 percent don’t know what Trump should do with his thumbs and smartphone.
As UPD and Jones have found with many questions concerning Trump this year, there is a real difference between how Utah men and women view the incoming GOP president.
Jones finds that 29 percent of Utah men want Trump to stop tweeting, while 40 percent of women want him to cut it out.
Thirty-nine percent of men want Trump to tweet less, while 34 percent of women do. And 15 percent of men want Trump to actually tweet more, while only 8 percent of women wish that.
So three-fourths of Utah women want Trump to shut up online, or at least tone it down.
The anti-government Tea Partiers in Utah – a natural constituency for him — want Trump to stay online: Jones finds that 41 percent of the TPers want Trump to tweet, but do it less often; while 19 percent want him to actually tweet more.
In a partisan breakout, Jones finds:
- Republicans: 22 percent say he should stop tweeting; 41 percent say he should stay online, but do it less often; 15 percent say he should tweet more, and 22 percent don’t know.
- Democrats say knock it off, big guy: 65 percent say Trump should stop tweeting altogether; 24 percent say he should do it less often; 7 percent want to hear from Trump more often, and 4 percent don’t know.
- Political independents: 42 percent say stop tweeting, Mr. Trump; 36 percent say tweet less; 7 percent say tweet more, and 15 percent don’t know.
Sixty percent of those who self-identified as “very conservative” say Trump should stay online, but tweet more often or less often.
And 92 percent of those who are “very liberal” say Trump should stop tweeting altogether, or at least cut own on his electronic statements.
Jones polled 614 adults from Dec. 8-12. The latest survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.95 percent.
