Support for Trump’s proposal for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border has ebbed and flowed since he first campaigned on the idea in 2016, but not by much. Generally speaking, Trump’s border wall plan has remained unpopular, except among Republicans.
That’s according to CBS News polls from July 2016 to October 2018. (The July 2016 poll was the first we could find that asked about support for the wall proposal and provided a breakdown by partisan identity.)
So it’s unlikely that Trump will change many minds tonight. And if the government shuts down again over funding for a border wall, it’s not clear where that will leave Trump, considering that most Americans oppose another shutdown over funding for a wall).
Trump has hinted that he may declare a state of emergency tonight in an attempt to use emergency executive powers to bypass Congress and fund the wall. But Trump may want to reconsider. Only 31 percent of Americans in the latest Quinnipiac University poll said they would approve of such an action. That said, it probably would play well with Republicans. The same Quinnipiac poll found that 66 percent of Republicans supported using emergency executive powers to secure funding for the wall. Declaring a national emergency would likely result in a legal challenge, but if Trump cares more about keeping his base and Republicans happy, he might be willing to risk a prolonged battle in the courts.