It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas and as carols are sung and eggnog is sipped, it’s time to start thinking about what presents one might find under the tree. But some politicians should be nervous that they may find coal in their stocking instead. Half of Americans (49%) say President Donald Trump deserves coal in his stocking at Christmas and this includes almost one-quarter (22%) of Republicans, seven in ten (71%) Democrats and over half (54%) of Independents. This is from an online survey conducted by Regina Corso Consulting among 2,049 U.S. adults, 18 and older between December 10 and 12, 2019.
The leaders of Congress fare a little better. Over one-third of Americans (35%) say Speaker Nancy Pelosi deserves coal in her stocking and this includes almost two-thirds of Republicans (63%), over one in ten Democrats (13%) and over one-third of Independents (36%). Three in ten U.S. adults (29%) say Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell deserves coal including one-quarter of Republicans (24%) and one-third of Democrats (32%) and Independents (33%).
Looking at four of the top contenders for the Democratic nomination, three in ten Americans say former VP Joe Biden (31%) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (30%) deserve coal, almost three in ten (28%) say Senator Bernie Sanders does and one in five (21%) say Mayor Pete Buttigieg deserves coal. Just around one in ten Democrats say each of these deserves coal and one-third of Independents say VP Biden (33%) and Sen. Warren (33%) do while around one-quarter of Independents say Sen. Sanders (27%) and Mayor Pete (23%) deserve coal. Over one in ten Americans (15%) say none of these seven politicians deserves coal.
This goes hand in hand with the fact that four in five Americans (81%) say that politicians seem to have forgotten what the holiday season is all about. And, politics is causing change – almost one-quarter of Americans have taken people off their holiday giving lists because of their political views (23%) and have stopped sending holiday card to people because of their political views (22%).
