Republicans have spent many days trying to marginalize the massive anti-Trump “No Kings” rallies held across the country over the weekend.
They’ve argued the people involved were extremists and even predicted they would be violent (which turned out not to be true). They’ve claimed the protesters hate America. And they’ve argued that the “No Kings” message itself is nonsensical, given President Donald Trump is a democratically elected president who sometimes works with Congress.
Trump said Sunday that the people were “not representative of this country.” He and his team have taken to mockingly posting memes and AI videos with Trump donning a crown — including one that the president shared in which he dumps brown waste on protesters.
House Speaker Mike Johnson added Monday night on Fox News that the protesters’ messages were “completely the opposite of what America was founded upon.”
New polling, though, reinforces how much the thrust of the “No Kings” message has resonated with much of the American public.
In fact, a majority of Americans appear sympathetic to it, at least to some extent. And their ranks appear to be growing.
The survey from the Public Religion Research Institute gave people two options. One was that Trump is a “potentially dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys democracy.” The other was that he’s a “strong leader who should be given the power he needs to restore America’s greatness.”
Americans chose the “dictator” option by a strong margin, 56%-41%.
And notably, that margin has nearly doubled since April, when Americans also sided with the “dictator” option but by a smaller, 52%-44% margin.
The same poll also showed a 54% majority sided with the view that Trump is waging an “assault on constitutional balances and the rule of law.” The alternative was that his overhaul of the federal government is “a long-overdue correction of disastrous policies” (43%).
It’s possible to oversell poll numbers like this. Giving people binary choices can inflate numbers by making people choose one extreme or another. People who don’t like Trump but don’t think he’s a dictator might feel compelled to choose the “dictator” option to avoid endorsing a man they don’t like.
But tellingly, the poll also asked people about the strength of their views. Fully 45% of Americans said they “strongly” agreed Trump was a dangerous dictator, and 43% strongly agreed that he’s waging an assault on checks and balances and the rule of law.
In both cases, nearly half of independents strongly agreed with those sentiments.
These are, to put it mildly, not insignificant numbers. Say what you will about elements of the “No Kings” rallies; this polling suggests the thrust of the demonstrations hardly appears ridiculous to a majority of Americans.
And this is merely the latest indicator that huge numbers of Americans have such concerns.
Clear majorities see him exceeding his powers
Whether “dictator” or “king” are particularly apt labels, Americans are clearly sympathetic to the idea that Trump is abusing his power.
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56% said Trump had gone “too far” in “using the power of the presidency and executive branch,” according to a July CNN poll. That was up from 52% in February.
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57% said Trump had gone “too far” in using presidential power to achieve his goals, according to an April AP-NORC poll.
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69% said Trump was exercising more presidential power than other recent presidents, and 49% said both that and that it was “bad” for the country, according to a September Pew Research Center poll.
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54% of registered voters said he is “exceeding the powers available to him,” according to a September New York Times-Siena College poll. (That included nearly 1 in 5 Republicans.)
Amid the rallies Saturday, a number of conservatives argued that invoking “Kings” was a non sequitur, given Trump was popularly elected in 2024.
“I don’t understand how Trump is a King when he won every single swing state, the electoral college and popular vote in a democratic election,” said Meghan McCain.
Fox News analyst Brit Hume noted that at least some of Trump’s policies have gotten congressional approval. “Some King,” he said.
But there is no question that Trump has disregarded the limits of his authority — and disregarded Congress — in extraordinary ways. The protesters don’t seem to be arguing that Trump is technically a monarch, so much as that he’s seeking to exercise unchecked power when he can.
And that seems to be an argument that a majority of Americans sympathize with.
Many have worried about this for a long time
If anything, these concerns already existed and have just gotten more pronounced as Trump has grabbed for more power.
Before Trump’s second term began:
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53% said it was at least “somewhat likely” he would act as a dictator, according to a December Reuters-Ipsos poll.
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53% of voters said they were “concerned” by Trump’s 2023 comment — he claims it was a joke — that he wanted to be a dictator for a day, per a Quinnipiac University poll.
It’s not just a partisan thing
It might be tempting to look at these numbers and think, well, it’s just partisan.
A decade ago, many Republicans accused Barack Obama of acting like a king, too. And what about when Joe Biden tried to work around a Supreme Court ruling invalidating his move on student loans?
But Americans clearly see a difference with Trump.
For one, in that last poll mentioned above, only about 2 in 10 voters said Trump’s then-opponent, Kamala Harris, was a fascist — less than half of Trump’s number.
For another, the Washington Post-Ipsos poll showed just 34% of Americans thought Biden had exceeded his authorities, compared with Trump’s 62%.
And perhaps tellingly, the AP-NORC poll in April showed a majority of Americans suddenly wanted to restrict that presidency in ways they hadn’t before. The percentage who said a president has “too much” power rose from 32% last year (under Biden) all the way up to 54% (under Trump).
All of which suggests Americans — or at least a majority of them — see something extraordinary happening right now.
Republicans can try to diminish the “No Kings” rallies all they want, but they’re speaking to something that’s very real to lots of people.
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