Majority view Trump ‘MAGA’ movement as threat to democracy: Poll
by Cami Mondeaux, Breaking News Reporter
September 08, 2022 09:45 AM
A majority of voters view former President Donald Trump's “Make America Great Again” movement as a threat to democracy, including a substantial chunk of Republicans who say the ideology does not represent the party.
About 58% of voters say Trump’s MAGA movement threatens the democratic foundation of the country, including about 25% of Republicans, according to a recent Reuters / Ipsos poll. The sentiment echoes remarks from President Joe Biden in Pennsylvania last week in which he warned voters that the future of democracy was at risk due to “MAGA forces.”
Biden’s speech marked a change in strategy ahead of the midterm elections, with the president leaning into the recent momentum his party has gained in recent weeks, such as Democratic wins in contentious special elections and the FBI raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. However, the speech sparked ire in others, with 59% of respondents saying they believe his remarks would only further divide the country, according to the poll.
Although Trump has remained somewhat popular with the Republican Party, his favorability has taken a hit since the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. As a result, 60% of Republicans say they don’t believe the former president’s MAGA movement represents the majority of the GOP, marking an intraparty divide ahead of the midterm elections.
Meanwhile, Biden’s ratings have remained low, with just 39% approving of his job performance, according to the poll. This could spell trouble for Biden and the Democratic Party, as the midterm elections are usually an assessment of how well a president is doing during his term and typically results in a shift of power in Congress if favorability is low.
As a result, Biden has sought to flip the script and shift the midterm focus from being a referendum on his performance to representing a last-ditch effort to save democracy.
“There’s no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans,” Biden said during his Pennsylvania speech. “It is within our power. It’s in our hands, yours and mine, to stop the assault on American democracy.”
The Reuters / Ipsos poll surveyed 1,003 respondents, including 411 who identified as Democrats and 397 who identified as Republicans. The poll has a credibility interval, meaning a measure of accuracy, of roughly 4 percentage points.https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/majority-view-maga-movement-as-threat-democracy