By late 2015 a majority of Trump supporters believed Obama was Muslim
Evidence
Perhaps nothing has made the dynamics of our current moment clearer—including how powerfully racial divides run through American Christianity and politics—than Donald Trump’s unlikely rise to power. Trump laid the groundwork for his candidacy by trolling President Barack Obama on social media and repeatedly questioning both Obama’s US citizenship and religion. For example, Trump made the following unfounded claim on Fox News in 2011: “He doesn’t have a birth certificate. He may have one, but there’s something on that, maybe religion, maybe it says he is a Muslim.” And unlike Republican presidential nominee John McCain, who actually took the microphone away from a woman who made similar claims at a town hall meeting during the 2008 campaign, Trump encouraged this line of thinking among his supporters. At a rally in New Hampshire, a supporter claimed, “We have a problem in this country. It’s called Muslims. You know our current president is one. You know he’s not even an American.” Chuckling, Trump replied, “We need this question. This is the first question.” For Trump, this was more than made-for-TV political theater; it was a successful political strategy. Even toward the end of Obama’s second term in office, a September 2015 CNN/ORC poll found that 54 percent of Trump supporters, and 43 percent of all Republicans, believed Obama to be a Muslim. — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 49
Categorization
- XREF: Connects with The New Crusades passages on how the War on Terror primed voters for Islamophobic leadership that Trump then exploited. — connects to: Belief that Obama was Muslim rose during his presidency and tracked with disapproval; Obama’s Muslim rumor grew after his election despite his public Christian identification — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race…, 1369; Sustained media smears convinced a large minority that Obama was secretly Muslim (+4 more)
- QUESTION: The 54%/43% poll figure from Sept 2015 is a striking quantified data point worth verifying and possibly using as a baseline for later shifts.
Broader Connections
- Belief that Obama was Muslim rose during his presidency and tracked with disapproval
#corroborates(0.90) - Obama’s Muslim rumor grew after his election despite his public Christian identification
#expands(0.85) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 1369 - Sustained media smears convinced a large minority that Obama was secretly Muslim
#expands(0.85) - Over 40 percent of Trump supporters rated Muslims as extremely violent in 2016.
#complicates(0.72) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 861 - Anti-Muslim platform positions helped Trump rise in 2016 Republican primary polls
#complicates(0.72) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 40 - Political Islamophobia’s modern form began with Obama’s 2008 presidential election.
#expands(0.70) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 235 - Obama’s surveillance state mainstreamed Islamophobia that enabled Trump’s victory
#complicates(0.70) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 301