53% Republicans feel Donald Trump better president than Abraham Lincoln, but Ronald Reagan remains 'most beloved': Poll
A majority of Republicans reportedly think President Donald Trump is a better leader than former President Abraham Lincoln, according to this week's Economist/YouGov weekly tracking poll released on Friday.
The poll showed that at least 53 percent of Republicans find Trump to be a better president than Lincoln, while 47 percent of the GOP responders chose the Civil War-era leader in the survey. Lincoln, however, overwhelmingly beat Trump when all American responders were considered in the poll, with the vast majority of Democrats and independents choosing the former president over Trump by 75 percent against 25 percent.
The Economist/YouGov survey, which took inputs from 1,500 American adults, asked Democrats, Republicans, and independents to compare Trump to seven other GOP presidents, including Lincoln, Richard Nixon and both George Bushes. In the overall survey, each of the presidents, including Nixon, beat Trump among all party voters.
However, Republicans ranked Trump as their favorite by a wide margin with only one exception. Ronald Reagan continues to be Republicans’ most beloved president, beating Trump by 59% to 41% in terms of favorability.
The poll also found out that 87 percent of the people surveyed in the GOP either somewhat or strongly approve of the job Trump is doing as president. President Trump, in the past, has often boasted of his approval ratings within the party and has also compared his popularity to that of Lincoln's.
Trump, in an interview with The Sun in July this year, had said: "You know, a poll just came out that I am the most popular person in the history of the Republican Party. Beating Lincoln," Trump added, without mentioning which poll he was referring to. "I beat our Honest Abe," he said.
Trump also used the latest survey as an argument against his impeachment. He tweeted a link of the survey, writing: "And the Do-Nothing Democrats want to impeach President Trump?”
An impeachment investigation against Trump is currently ongoing in the House after a whistleblower lodged an official complaint alleging that the president asked for a favor from a foreign leader to investigate his political rival former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.