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Trump’s biggest fans don’t believe white privilege exists, poll says

President Donald Trump gets his highest approval ratings from people who believe white privilege does not exist, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center.

The way people view Trump’s job performance appears closely tied to their beliefs about white privilege. To put a number on it, 74 percent of people who don’t believe white people enjoy societal advantages over other races also approve of Trump’s performance as president. Trump’s overall approval ratings are much lower — around 36 percent, according to an August survey from Pew.

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The numbers get even starker when you factor in party affiliation. Eighty-nine percent of both Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who don’t believe white people enjoy any benefits from their race approve of Trump’s performance.

On the flip side, almost all — 97 percent — of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents who acknowledge white privilege disapprove of Trump’s job performance.

On a general basis, 56 percent of Americans believe that white people benefit “a great deal” from privilege. But breaking that down by race, 92 percent of black people believe that white people have a great deal or a fair amount of privileges, according to Pew, while just 46 percent of white people believe that they benefit at least a “fair amount” from white privilege. Only 16 percent of white people believe they benefit a great deal.

Trump does not appear to be one of them, and his controversial views on race have taken center stage so far in his presidency. He ran his campaign on an isolationist border policy that singled out Mexican people and refugees from the Middle East; in August, he noted that there were some “very fine people” among the white supremacists who marched on Charlottesville, Virginia, leaving one woman dead; and just last week he called the NFL players who kneel during the national anthem to protest racial injustice “sons of bitches,” and uninvited Steph Curry, a black NBA player, from his team’s planned White House visit.