12 million Americans still justify violence to restore Trump, finds survey

Over 12 million American adults or 4.4% of the adult population still believe violence is justified to restore former US president Donald Trump to the White House, finds a survey by the University of Chicago.

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Though the number of adults who believe this has declined since the Capitol insurrection in 2021, recent survey data reveals alarming and dangerous levels of support for political violence and conspiracy theories across the United States, reported The Guardian.

The researchers at the university’s Chicago Project on Security and Threats (CPOST) found continued support for violence to achieve one's political goals and a general distrust for democracy.

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“We’re heading into an extremely tumultuous election season,” Robert Pape, a professor at the University of Chicago, told The Guardian. “What’s happening in the United States is political violence is going from the fringe to the mainstream.”

Survey statistics

The survey from April found that an estimated 142 million Americans believe that “elections won’t solve America’s most fundamental problems.” Moreover, one in five adults in the US still believe that “the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.”

The survey found that almost 14% – a minority of Americans, but still a significant number – believe the use of force is justified to “achieve political goals that I support”. More specifically, 12.4% believe the use of force is justified to restore the federal right to abortion, 8.4% believe its use is justified to ensure members of Congress and other government officials do the right thing, 6.3% think it’s justified to preserve the rights of white Americans, and 6.1% believe it’s justified to prevent the prosecution of Trump.

Earlier findings

In September 2022, the same survey found that 13 million US adults, or 5% of the adult population, agree that force would be justified to restore Trump and an estimated 15 million Americans believed its use would be justified to prevent him from being prosecuted. Meanwhile, in September 2021, the number of supporters of the use of force in favor of Trump stood at 21 million.

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