Most Republican voters admit to feeling ‘embarrassed’ and ‘exhausted’ by Trump’s comments

Some diehard supporters of President Donald Trump have asserted that they admire the fact that he is so unapologetic about his rhetoric and his actions. But according to a new Pew Research survey, most Republican or Republican-leaning voters admit that they sometimes feel “embarrassed” or “concerned” about things that Trump says.

According to Pew, 53% of Republican or Republican-leaning voters say they sometimes feel “embarrassed” by Trump’s comments — while 59% are sometimes “concerned” by them. Some of the adjectives Pew ran by GOP or GOP-leaning voters were even stronger, including “angry,” “exhausted” and “frightened.”

According to Pew, 41% of them sometimes feel “exhausted” by Trump’s comments, while 37% sometimes feel “angry” because of them. And 32% felt “insulted” by things Trump says, although only 22% feel “frightened” by them.

The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake, comparing Pew’s survey to previous surveys, finds that Trump appears to be worrying Republican voters more than he did in the past. Blake points to a February 2017 McClatchy/Marist College survey in which only 12% of Republicans felt embarrassed by Trump’s conduct. But Blake notes the option of the word “sometimes” in Pew’s recent poll.

Pew’s survey also indicated that Republican or Republican-leaning voters don’t feel they can share their honest feelings about Trump’s comments in their communities, especially if those communities were favorable to Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. According to Pew, 37% felt very comfortable openly expressing their political views.