When he was running for the White House, Donald Trump used to constantly brag about how wealthy he was.
“I don’t need anybody’s money. I’m really rich,” he would say. “I don’t need anybody’s money, I don’t need lobbyists’ money.” He said he was not boasting, but that this was the “kind of mindset you need” in America.
Mr Trump may be a little disappointed, therefore, to learn that his support among other rich people appears to be declining. A survey conducted for CNBC found that millionaires were having growing worries about Mr Trump because of apparent government dysfunction.
CNBC's Millionaire Survey found that 45 per cent of millionaires who responded said they voted for the former TV reality star, compared to 41 per cent for Ms Clinton.
It said that when they were asked to score Mr Trump’s first 100 days, the President ranked 38 on a scale of 1 to 100. When the survey then looked at “pro-Trump” and “anti-Trump” attitudes, 50 per cent of millionaires said they were now opposed to the President. Just 29 per cent said they considered themselves pro-Trump, according to the poll.
“He’s an unconventional president, and I think many of these voters are still getting used to that,” said George Walper, president of Spectrem Group, which conducted the survey. “And I think that the hopes for tax reform and health-care reform faded a bit.”
When asked about the biggest risk to the economy over the next 12 months, government dysfunction ranked first, at 38 per cent. Millionaires also said government dysfunction was the biggest threat to their own personal wealth.
