A new study shows that more than half of voters think former President Trump will impose his will on the country if he is elected again.
A study by Harvard CAPS and Harris found that 56% of people agree or strongly agree that Trump, who is currently the clear favorite for the GOP nomination, will rule like a dictator if he gets a second term. Almost 40% of those people said they strongly agreed.
Also, 59% of voters think that Democrats are scaring people away from Trump by saying he wants to be a tyrant, which is not true.
Trump said, and then said it again, that he would rule like a tyrant if he was elected again, but only on “day one” of his second term.
The head of the Harvard CAPS-Harris study, Mark Penn, said, “Democratic talking points are affecting Trump.” Penn also said that the study shows that people are afraid that Trump will abuse his power if he wins.
A study found that about half of voters think Trump would be a threat to democracy if he is reelected. Democrats were more likely than Republicans to say they thought this, while Republicans were less likely to say they did. The answer from independents was split down the middle.
Pollsters found that if Trump and Biden ran against each other, Trump would win by 5 points, with 47% voting for Trump and 42% voting for Biden. 12% of voters were not sure. With the unsure voters having to make a choice, Trump’s lead drops to 4 percentage points, from 52% to 48%.
During a town hall meeting with Fox News host Sean Hannity this month, Trump said he was a tyrant. Hannity had asked Trump about rumors that if he wins re-election next year, Trump will become more authoritarian.
Ask yourself this question: If you are re-elected, do you have any plans to abuse your power, break the law, or use the government to go after people? He was asked by Hannity.
“‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?'” I told them no, no, no—except for the first day. The border is being closed, and drilling, drilling, drilling are being done. Trump said, “After that, I’m not a dictator.”
When asked about the comment, Biden said at a dinner that everyone should be sure that democracy is in danger.
“Trump is no longer even trying to hide the ball. He’s telling us what he wants us to do. “He’s not hiding it,” Biden said.
Two thousand and fourteen registered voters were asked to fill out the Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll poll between December 13 and 14. The Howard University Center for American Political Studies and the Harris Poll worked together on it.
The Harris Panel was used to pick an online sample for the survey, which was then weighted to match known demographics. As an online group that is meant to be representative, it doesn’t give a probability confidence interval.