Trump's call gets major support in online poll

CHICAGO - In an online survey, almost two-thirds of likely 2016 Republican primary-season voters favored Donald Trump's call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States, while more than a third said it made them more likely to vote for him.

The Bloomberg Politics/Purple Strategies PulsePoll, conducted Tuesday, showed support at 37 percent among all likely general-election voters for the proposal by Trump.

"This indicates that, despite some conventional wisdom expressed in the last 48 hours, this is unlikely to hurt Trump at least in the primary campaign," Doug Usher, who runs polling for Washington-based Purple Strategies, said of the findings.

Support for Trump's proposal remained virtually unchanged after voters were told both sides of the argument. They were told that "leaders from across the political spectrum have condemned this policy" as one that will make the United States "less safe by alienating the allies we need to fight ISIS."

They were also told that Trump had said it was needed until more is known about the threat and that the nation "cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in jihad."

After voters were provided with the additional information, support for the proposal remained essentially unchanged, with 64 percent of likely Republican primary voters saying they favored the idea. That included 52 percent who say they strongly support the proposal.

After being told about the idea, 37 percent of likely Republican primary voters said it made them more likely to support Trump, while 16 percent said less and 46 percent said it has no impact.

Among all likely general-election voters, including Democrats and independents, 18 percent said it made them more likely to back Trump, while 33 percent said less likely and 44 percent said it had no impact.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points on the full sample and higher on subgroups, such as likely Republican primary voters, where it is 7 percentage points.