Polls show Americans are getting sick of border wall standoff, but Trump and Dems won’t budge

With no signs of compromise on the standoff over funding for a border wall, new polls found that after 34 days of government shutdown, Americans are growing tired of the deadlock and want an agreement reached as soon as possible.

Separate polls released this week found that more Americans feel the partial shutdown is a bigger emergency than the border situation and that the wall is not worth the standoff. In some bad news for Trump, more Americans also pinned the blame for the standoff on him than on congressional Democrats.

The latest poll, released on Thursday by the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found that 60 percent of Americans said Trump bore a “great deal” of responsibility for the shutdown — and that the impasse has cut into his overall approval rating, which was at 34 percent, down from 40 percent in December.

A CBS poll released on day 33 of the shutdown found that 71 percent of Americans said the border wall was “not worth” the shutdown. Only 28 percent said the wall was worth the shutdown and 94 percent said the current situation was causing either “some problems” or “serious problems” for the country.

Along party lines, however, things are more split, with both sides refusing to give in. Among Republicans, 65 percent said Trump should refuse any spending bill unless it includes funding for the wall, while 69 percent of Democrats said funding should continue to be refused.

In more bad news for Trump, the CBS poll also found that overall House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is seen as doing a better job on negotiations than Trump, with 47 percent saying she was handling the situation better, while 35 percent felt Trump was doing a better job.

In a sign, however, that Americans overall are willing to support any kind of agreement to get the government fully running again, 66 percent said Trump should agree to a bill with no wall funding and 52 percent overall said that Democrats should agree to a deal which included wall funding.

Separately, a Fox News poll showed that 75 percent of people felt the shutdown was an “emergency” or “major problem” facing the country — higher than the 59 percent who said the border was a major issue.

The Fox poll found that 51 percent of Americans blamed Trump for the shutdown while 34 percent blamed congressional Democrats, 3 percent blamed congressional Republicans and 9 percent blamed all of the above. It also found that 43 percent support the wall (up from 39 percent in September) and 51 percent oppose it, steady since September.

Trump has demanded $5.7 billion in funding for the wall, which has been steadfastly opposed by Democrats, leading to the partial shutdown, which has reached its 34th day. For weeks, both sides have refused to budge on their positions, leading to a separate standoff over the State of the Union Speech which Trump was due to deliver to Congress next week.

As House speaker, Pelosi has the procedural right to call the president to deliver the speech, which she refused to do until the shutdown ends. After initially warning Pelosi that he would show up on Capitol Hill to deliver the speech anyway and accusing her of being “afraid of the truth,” Trump backed down and said he will give the address when the shutdown is over.

According to the CBS poll, Americans overall were evenly split on Trump giving the speech during the shutdown, with 48 percent saying he should do it and 48 percent saying he should postpone it.

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