Trump's Losing Christian 'Moral' Battle to DeSantis

A poll released Monday showed more Republican voters said the word "moral" better describes Florida Governor Ron DeSantis than it does former President Donald Trump.

However, the poll from The New York Times/Siena College still found an overwhelming majority of the GOP respondents said they will likely support Trump in the upcoming primaries for the 2024 presidential nomination.

Among the likely Republican primary electorate who participated in the poll, 54 percent said they would vote for Trump if the election for the GOP presidential nominees "were held today." That compares to 17 percent who said they would vote for DeSantis.

But when asked if the term "moral" better described Trump or DeSantis, 45 percent chose the Florida governor, as opposed to 37 percent who said the word better described Trump.

Jay Townsend, a nonpartisan political consultant, told Newsweek he "would not read too much into the 'moral' question."

"Even Trump supporters might regard a man with a stable family and long monogamous marriage more moral than a thrice divorced philander who cheated on every wife he's had," Townsend said. "If Trump's 'morality' were a disqualification in the eyes of Republican voters, his career in politics would have been short-lived."

The poll broke down the results by the religious affiliation of the respondents, and 34 percent of Catholics and 39 percent of Protestant Christians said "moral" was a term that better described Trump. Meanwhile, 43 percent of Catholics and 45 percent of Protestants said the word was more suitable for DeSantis.

Slightly more of the people polled said the word "likable" better described DeSantis than Trump, by a 45 percent to 43 percent margin. However, phrases or terms that the respondents said better described Trump were "strong leader" (69 percent to 22 percent); "get things done" (67 percent to 22 percent); "able to beat Joe Biden" (58 percent to 28 percent); and "fun" (54 percent to 16 percent).

Newsweek reached out to DeSantis and Trump via email for comment.

The New York Times/Siena College noted 932 voters in the likely Republican primary electorate participated in the poll, which was conducted by telephone from July 23 to 27. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.96 percentage points.

The poll also showed the upward climb other Republican candidates face in the race. Former Vice President Mike Pence, former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott all tied for third place in the respondents' support with 3 percent. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie both received support from 2 percent of likely GOP primary voters.

When asked about the results of the poll, Republican strategist John Feehery told Newsweek that he thinks "Trump has the advantage because he dominates the news cycle, he basically is running as the incumbent, he had a pretty good track record as president (outside of COVID) and he is far more famous than DeSantis or anybody else running."

Feehery added that "basically, for a party that wants to stick it to The Man, there is no better way to stick it to The Man than to vote for Trump."

Townsend said he saw a few takeaways from the poll. The first was "one-quarter of the die-hard Republican base says they are not open to Trump. That does not bode well for the GOP if Trump is the nominee."

Another important finding, according to the political consultant, was that 46 percent indicated they would not support Trump.

"There is room for a challenger (and probably only one) when the field is whittled down and as his competition becomes more defined," Townsend said. "Trump is also going to face some difficult news in the coming weeks, which will naturally peel off some of those not in the MAGA base."