As we note in our new report on Donald Trump’s embrace of conspiracy theorists, “poll after poll shows that Trump supporters disproportionately subscribe to shocking conspiracy theories,” such as the false claim that thousands of Muslim-Americans in New Jersey celebrated on 9/11 or that climate science is a hoax.
A new survey released by Public Policy Polling today finds that respondents who have a favorable opinion of Trump are much more likely to believe in the conspiracy theories Trump promotes, including the discredited claims that President Obama is a foreign-born Muslim, that Justice Antonin Scalia died under suspicious circumstances and that vaccines are linked to autism.
One claim promoted by Trump, that Ted Cruz’s father was involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy, didn’t appear to entirely convince his followers. But it did raise misgivings: while 7 percent of Trump’s fans thought Rafael Cruz was implicated in the assassination, 38 percent couldn’t say for sure one way or the other.
That’s not so bad for Trump, since simply muddying the waters was his main objective all along.
Among voters with a favorable opinion of Trump:
-65% think President Obama is a Muslim, only 13% think he's a Christian.
-59% think President Obama was not born in the United States, only 23% think that he was.
-27% think vaccines cause autism, 45% don't think they do, another 29% are not sure.
-24% think Antonin Scalia was murdered, just 42% think he died naturally, another 34% are unsure.
-7% think Ted Cruz's father was involved in the assassination of JFK, 55% think he was not involved, another 38% are unsure.
“For the most part we’ve found that Donald Trump’s supporters lap up every conspiracy theory he pushes out there,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “But the Ted Cruz’s dad was involved in killing JFK one appears to be a bridge too far even for them.”
