OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
According to a recent New York Times poll, pop superstar Taylor Swift has a lower favorability rating among voters than former President Donald Trump.
The survey, conducted between September 11 and September 16 by the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Siena College, revealed that only 44% of Americans hold a favorable opinion of Swift, following her endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris.
Thirty-four percent of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of Swift, while 22% do not know how to feel about the former country star.
The same poll also shows that former President Donald Trump has a higher favorability rating than Taylor Swift. According to the survey, 47% of Americans view Trump favorably, compared to 44% for Swift. Harris has a slightly higher favorability rating than both, with 48% of Americans expressing a favorable opinion of her.
“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election,” Swift announced following the Democratic National Convention. “I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”
Meanwhile, Trump has vowed to take extreme actions to secure the U.S.-Mexico border if he wins November’s presidential election. And that promise is supported by a key voting bloc — Latinos.
The most recent Axios-Ipsos Latino Poll shows that the percentage of Latinos who support erecting a border wall and deporting all undocumented immigrants has increased by at least 10 points since 2021.
According to the research, even among those who might have connections to immigration, Trump’s calls for increased border security and possibly his immigration control rhetoric are having an impact.
The results also reflect Republicans’ recent gains among Latinos and reflect the frustration that has elevated illegal immigration to the top issue for many Americans during election season. If Trump wins, he has vowed to increase border security and organize mass deportations, which he claims could include a million people.
Axios reported on the findings:
42% of Latino adults surveyed said they support building a wall or fence along the entire U.S.–Mexico border. That’s a 12-point jump from December 2021.
38% support sending all undocumented immigrants in the U.S. back to their country of origin — up from 28% in 2021.
In addition, 64% of Latinos said they support giving the president the authority to shut U.S. borders if there are too many immigrants trying to enter the country. It was the first time the survey asked this question.
Support for building a wall was strongest among Cuban Americans (58%), who generally are more conservative than many other Latinos and have benefited from decades of Cold War-era “special treatment” on immigration.
Support for the border wall is lowest among Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans (37%). Only 43% of Central Americans support the wall.
According to the survey, after inflation and crime, Latinos’ top concerns in this election year are immigration and crime.
Even though the percentage of Latinos who believe that anyone in the country illegally should be deported is on the rise, a sizable majority (65%) still prefer to offer them a path to citizenship. Also, 59% are in favor of granting asylum to refugees who are escaping crime and violence in Latin America in the United States.
Ipsos pollster and senior vice president Chris Jackson told Axios that the poll “illustrates that some immigration hardline positions (are) incrementally more popular” among Latinos.
This comes as the former Border Patrol union head claims that since President Joe Biden gave Vice President Kamala Harris the responsibility to address the underlying causes of illegal immigration in 2021, Harris has fallen short.
“It’s very disappointing,” Brandon Judd, who recently retired as president of the Border Patrol Union, told Fox News. “We gave her the policies that she needed to implement. She refused to implement those.”
