Trump's Trials - New poll finds about three-quarters of Americans say democracy under threat

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

About three-quarters of Americans say democracy is under serious threat, according to a new poll from NPR, PBS News and Marist. A similar number also see politically motivated violence as a major problem.Support NPR and hear every episode of Trump's Terms sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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And I'm Michelle Martin. Ahead of the Independence Day holiday and the country's 249th birthday, three quarters of Americans say democracy is under serious threat. That's according to a new poll from NPR, PBS News and Marist. A similar number also see politically motivated violence as a major problem. NPR political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro is here to talk about these results as well as the general atmosphere around politics in this country right now. Good morning, Domenico. Hey there.

So let's start with this question about the state of democracy. What did the poll ask? And what stood out to you about the answers? The overwhelming majority, 76%, see the country under serious threat. That includes 89% of Democrats, 80% of independents, and 57% of Republicans.

And this is coming at a time of great political volatility in the country. People are polarized and sharply divided, so in many ways are living in different realities about what they perceive to be the threat, regardless of who's right or wrong here. Democrats see Trump and right-wing extremism as the threat. Republicans though were 31 points more likely to say that there was a serious threat to democracy when Democrat Joe Biden was president. So you know, we have to talk about political violence in this country.

There were threats on President Trump's life earlier during the campaign season, two of them, in fact, and over the weekend, there was a funeral for the state lawmaker and her husband who were killed in Minnesota. So how are Americans seeing these attacks? Michael O'Brien Yeah, here again, a significant majority, 73 percent said they see politically motivated violence as a major problem. While there was little difference by political party, there was some division by race and age.

Latinos, black voters, and younger voters, for example, were less likely to say politically motivated violence was a major problem as compared to white and older voters. And one other thing stood out here, on both questions, it was white women, regardless of education level, who were most likely to say that there was a serious threat to democracy and that politically motivated violence was a major problem. That's interesting. So given all that, what does the poll tell us about faith and political leaders? It's not great. I mean, people have very low confidence generally in the political leadership in the country right now, whether it President Trump congressional Republicans or congressional Democrats, you know first when it comes to Trump

He gets just a 43 percent approval and when digging down to key specific issue areas He doesn't score very well on any of them. I mean his handling of immigration is 43 percent foreign policy Just 41 percent and his handling of the economy is worst of all at 39 percent. And what about faith in the political parties? Well, looking at Republicans in Congress, only 35 percent said they approve of the job they're doing. And guess what? That's the highest that Marist has recorded since it started asking the question back in 2011. Democrats, meanwhile, who are hoping to capitalize on Trump's relative unpopularity, plus the unpopularity of his mega-bill that's making its way through Congress, are facing record

lows. Just 27% approve of congressional Democrats. That's their lowest score in seven years, back to 2018. And the reason for that is Democrats themselves. Only 44% of Democrats say that they approve of their party's approach in Congress right now. Compare that to 73% of Republicans who said so of their own party. If Democrats hope to take back the House next year, they've got a lot of work to do to shore up their own House first. That is NPR's Domenico Montanaro. Domenico, thank you.

You're welcome. And if you want to dive deep into all of the numbers in the poll, they are on our website, npr.org. Before we wrap up, a reminder, you can find more coverage of the Trump administration on the NPR Politics Podcast, where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's biggest political news with new episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks, as always, to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsor messages.

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