Let's set aside the always-popular “tax cuts for people like me.” There's a reason politicians always mention it: It's always popular. There are three other policies for which at least half of the respondents in our poll offered their support.
More than half of respondents said that they supported renegotiating NAFTA and punishing companies that move jobs overseas. These are positions that get to the core of the economic message offered by Trump -- and, in the case of NAFTA, Bernie Sanders. These proposals were two of those which got the highest marks from Democrats, which is a key reason that they enjoy plurality support.
But the third of the four ideas that get over 50 percent support may be unexpected. It's a Trump-primary-era proposal: Deporting immigrants here illegally who have been convicted of a crime. Trump has repeatedly argued for deporting every immigrant here illegally, but eventually narrowed that position to focus on those who had been convicted of crimes. (He usually offers a higher-than-reality figure for how many people he would target.) This idea is more popular than might be expected, with more than half of Democrats agreeing that it's a good idea.
Beyond that, Trump gets less than majority support for his ideas. People don't really like "cutting taxes for the rich,” unsurprisingly. But that wall on the border with Mexico? Only a bit over a third of Americans like that idea, thanks to a huge partisan gulf. Blocking Muslim immigrants? Less popular still. Those are two of the five ideas in which a plurality or majority opposes Trump's position. The other three are his plans for boosting infrastructure spending and his proposals to step away from the nuclear treaty with Iran and the international climate change compact agreed to by President Obama. Interestingly, that latter proposal is one of only three ideas supported by a minority of Republicans.
Another issue on which there's broad partisan disagreement is repealing the Affordable Care Act. Overall, the country is about split, with Democrats strongly opposed to the idea and Republicans supporting it. The poll was being conducted as the debate over repeal was heating up, and there are some signs that Republican support for repeal is wavering. Given the possibility that 38 million people could lose insurance if the law is repealed, it's also not clear how closely Trump and his allies on Capitol Hill will adhere to promises to dump Obamacare.
The story of Obamacare from its inception was of a partisan split in perceptions of the law. Attitudes to the policy mirrored attitudes toward Obama himself: Democrats loved both; Republicans hated both. That's similar to a number of the Trump policies, too: Wide gulfs in attitudes between members of either party.
Those gulfs were often widest in our polling on the policies that were at the heart of Trump's primary campaign. The wall. Repealing Obamacare. Ending the Iran deal. Banning Muslim migrants. Trump's most popular primary-campaign argument — deportations — is popular thanks to his modifying it to make it more broadly palatable.
In other words: By pivoting.
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