'Waned': WaPo data shows Trump's support has peaked — and is rapidly falling

Washington Post columnist Philip Bump took a dig at President Donald Trump’s base of support Wednesday as being “relatively small” when compared to the broader electorate — and cast doubts on the staying power of the now-decade-old MAGA movement.

“By mid-March, the percentage (of Republican voters identifying as ‘MAGA Republicans’) was up to 56 percent,” Bump wrote. “But that was the high-water mark, at least to date. Both in late April and over the last month, the number of Republicans who call themselves MAGA Republicans waned.”

There’s no doubt Trump remains the dominant figure in Republican politics, however, Bump’s deep dive into the president’s base of support reveals that Trump-faithful voters represent only a fraction of the national voter base — a fraction, he argues, that is only dropping.

“When the number of self-identified MAGA Republicans is compared to the population of adult citizens, fewer than 1 in 6 use that term to describe themselves,” Bump wrote.

Trump had a bumpy start when first joining the race for president a decade ago. A May poll from ABC News and The Washington Post in 2015 found that roughly six in ten Republicans viewed Trump unfavorably. And while his support grew significantly over the next two months, Bump argued that support has largely reached its ceiling, given the polarizing nature of Trump, even among Republican voters.

“There is a cloud to this MAGA silver lining for Trump,” Bump wrote.

“YouGov’s polling for the Economist shows that self-identified MAGA Republicans are those who view his presidency and policies with the most approval – but that the other half of Republicans, the non-MAGA group, are at times closer to the general public in their views of Trump’s presidency than they are to the more Trump-enthusiastic members of their own party.”

Putting it more bluntly, Bump notes that the most recent polling shows that around 50% of Republicans identify as “MAGA Republicans.” And about 10 years ago, when Trump clenched the Republican nomination, his support was roughly the same.

“The percentage of Americans who perfectly align with Trump’s agenda is relatively small,” Bump wrote. “This isn’t unusual for an elected leader, but it does seem at odds with Trump’s frequent public presentations of his overwhelming support.”