A new poll by Quinnipiac University reveals that a growing number of Americans think President Donald Trump has contributed to a more hateful atmosphere in the U.S., and many think he’s deliberately encouraged hate groups. Nearly two-thirds of Americans said they believe that the level of hatred and prejudice have gone up since President Donald Trump entered office in January.
Researchers polled 1,514 voters across the nation between August 17 and 22. The data was collected on the heels of widespread criticism of Trump’s refusal to unequivocally condemn this month’s white supremacist gathering in Charlottesville, Virginia, and just before Trump suggested he would pardon former sheriff Joe Arpaio in an off-script tirade in Phoenix, Arizona on Tuesday. Arpaio, a longtime Trump supporter, was convicted last month of failing to obey a judge’s order to end his practice of racially profiling Latinos in Maricopa County, Arizona; the ACLU called Trump’s hint at pardoning him “an official endorsement of racism.”
Thirty-two percent of respondents said the level of hatred in U.S. public life has not changed since Trump was inaugurated, while two percent stated that it has improved.
The survey’s findings correspond with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s most recent report on the rise of hate groups in the U.S. In February the group found that the number of these groups “rose for a second year in a row in 2016 as the radical right was energized by the candidacy of Donald Trump…The most dramatic growth was the near-tripling of anti-Muslim hate groups—from 34 in 2015 to 101 last year.”
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