National embarrassment: A majority of Americans don't like having Donald Trump as president, and his wall isn't helping him

Trump's base of support — white voters and men — is rapidly crumbling

Published April 5, 2017 4:06PM (EDT)

 (Reuters/Mike Segar)
(Reuters/Mike Segar)

A majority of voters in the U.S. are embarrassed to have Donald Trump as their president, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released on Tuesday. Fifty-two percent of the voters polled said they were embarrassed that Trump is leading the nation, while only 27 percent stated they were proud. Trump also appears to be losing popularity within key factions of his voter base — men and white people. Fifty-one percent of the white male voters surveyed and 48 percent of all white voters polled said they disapprove of the way Trump is handling his new job. In total, only 35 percent of those surveyed said they approve of Trump's handling of the presidency, while 57 percent said they disapprove.

Those who hold critical feelings about the presidency are by no means exclusively voters who skew left. Some of the president's voters appear to be having second thoughts. Even in deep-red Texas, he's having trouble, and that may be be precisely because of his wall.

A CNN investigative report explored the repercussions for those living near the border.It turns out, there is a long history of government attempts to take property from homeowners through the courts. Trump's wall is planned to cover the entire border, and some of his own supporters plan to fight the administration in court.

One family in particular, whose relatives have been farming the South Texas for nearly 100 years, had its land cut in half 10 years ago — the last time the U.S. government was building a wall along the border.

“I was very angry, I just kept saying, how can they do that? How is that possible in the United States that they can do this?” D’Ann Loop of Brownsville recalled to CNN. “They put up a fence in front of our land and then keep us in here — lock us in. I didn’t understand. I was very — I was floored and flabbergasted.”

Members of the Loop family lost the fight in court and was issued a settlement after the government took their land, leaving them with almost no more property in the U.S.

"It essentially left us no property on the U.S. side of the border wall including my house — my residence. Everything was behind — on the Mexican side of the U.S. border fence,” Ray Loop told CNN.

CNN reported:

Though the Loops' home is on US territory, it is located on the other side of the country's border fence. The family was essentially locked out of its own country when the fence was built a decade ago.
That's because construction of a border barrier is complicated by concerns over the environment, geography, topography and other matters. It doesn't always follow the true border between Mexico and the US.

Indeed because of that fence that was built, D'Ann Loop told CNN: "We say over and over again, we feel like we're in Mexico. People ask us that. . . . And I said, 'No, we're still in the U.S. I'm a U.S. citizen.' . . . No, I'm not a Mexican. We just live on the Mexico side of the fence."

Land disputes will surely continue to rise should Trump succeed in carrying out his proposal for a wall since it would extend all along the border, which would leave some U.S. citizens feeling left out of their own country as their property will straddle a physical barrier.

Pat Bell, a Trump supporter who is against the idea of a wall, said she may have to hire a lawyer because her home may no longer be in the state of Texas. “Absolutely I would go to the people who are in charge and, you hate to say I would get a lawyer, but if it comes to that issue, you would,” she said.

Watch the CNN report below:


By Charlie May

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Border Donald Trump Mexico Wall Quinnipiac Poll