Professor Shibley Telhami recently published in Lawfare an analysis of the May University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll on campus protests.
Two findings are worth highlighting. The first is that Trump's actions against universities over the issue of campus protests have the effect of making Americans more sympathetic with the protesters than with their critics.
The second finding is about the impact of the "Trump factor" on the sequencing of questionnaire questions. In the case of two related questions, one that mentions President Trump and one that does not, whose sequence could impact responses, we randomized the order of the questions and reported the randomized total results. We also analyzed the impact on responses which was found to be significant.
The conclusion was that starting with the question that provided information about the Trump administration's position added to the polarization on both questions among Democrats and Republicans but also added to the sympathy with protesters overall. This interpretation is bolstered by the April poll showing that Democrats and Republicans were divided on what drives the Trump administration's actions toward universities but that, overall, most Americans saw these actions as being driven more by going after political critics and critics of Israel than by confronting antisemitism.
You can find the full article here.
