A recent survey of Democrat voters reveals striking levels of support for unconventional and extraconstitutional methods of removing President Donald Trump from office before the end of his term, including a military takeover and, for a significant minority, assassination.
The poll, conducted by the Center for Strategic Politics in partnership with Liberal Currents, surveyed 683 Democrat voters voters Sept. 3 and Sept. 8-10.
Respondents were asked how they would feel if they woke up to specific news headlines describing Trump leaving office early.
The Center for Strategic Politics characterized the results as showing that a plurality of Democrats supported four of the five scenarios tested.
In the most extreme scenario — “President Donald Trump was assassinated while speaking at a rally” — 23% said they would feel “very positive” and 9% “somewhat positive,” for a combined 32% positive response.
Twenty-five percent were neutral, while 43% reacted negatively.
Support was far stronger for a military intervention framed as safeguarding the Constitution.
Forty-three percent reacted “very positively” and 16% “somewhat positively” to the headline that “a group of U.S. military leaders have removed President Donald Trump from power and assumed control of the United States,” totaling 59% positive.
Thirteen percent were neutral, and 28% reacted negatively.
Natural death also polled well: 55% would feel positive if “President Donald Trump died overnight in his sleep.”
Constitutional options, however, dominated with positive Democrat response.
Eighty-seven percent reacted positively to Trump being “impeached and convicted by both houses of Congress and … removed from office,” including 75% who reacted very positively.
The progressive Center for Strategic Politics summarized the findings on X: “We polled five routes for Trump to leave office before the end of his term. A plurality of Dems support four of them, including a military coup and death by natural causes. The only one underwater, an assassination, is still supported by 29%.”
An accompanying analysis by Chance Phillips at Liberal Currents said Democrat voters would be “very, very, very, very happy” if Trump were successfully impeached and removed, and that participants reported happiness with “just about any way that Trump could be removed from office, up to and including a military coup.”
The survey also found majorities of Democrats favoring criminal prosecutions of Trump administration officials and institutional changes such as packing the Supreme Court and abolishing the filibuster.
The results have drawn widespread attention for illustrating the intensity of Democrat opposition to Trump two years into his current term.