Twenty-three percent of Democratic voters told pollsters they would feel "very positive" if Donald Trump were assassinated while speaking at a rally. Another 9 percent said "somewhat positive." That's 32 percent of an entire political party's base — roughly one in three — who looked at a survey question about a sitting president being murdered in public and thought, yeah, that works for me.
The margin of error is 3.75 points. It doesn't help.
The poll, conducted jointly by Liberal Currents and the Center for Strategic Politics, surveyed 683 Democratic voters between September 3 and September 10. It asked respondents how they'd feel about five different scenarios in which Trump leaves office before his term ends. Four of the five received plurality support. The only scenario that went underwater was assassination — and even that pulled 29 percent support after you account for the rounding.
The numbers on a military coup are worse. Forty-three percent of Democrats surveyed said they'd feel "very positive" about the U.S. military overthrowing the elected president. Another 16 percent said "somewhat positive." Combined: 59 percent. Nearly three in four Democrats, when you fold in the softer support categories, indicated comfort with uniformed officers removing a president who won 312 electoral votes.
Impeachment and conviction by Congress drew 87 percent combined positive responses. Removal via the 25th Amendment hit 84 percent. Death from natural causes — Trump simply dying overnight — came in at 55 percent positive.
Read those numbers in order and the pattern isn't subtle. Democrats didn't just say they want Trump out of office. They ranked how they'd like it to happen. Congressional procedure is preferred, but if the institutions won't do it, they'll take the tanks. And if the tanks won't do it, well — 32 percent have an answer for that too.
CNN pundit Scott Jennings amplified the results, which prompted a round of damage control from the usual quarters. The defense amounted to pointing out that "very positive" and "somewhat positive" aren't the same thing — as though a person who is only somewhat enthusiastic about a military coup is the moderate voice Democrats should be celebrating.
The poll didn't stop at removal fantasies. It also measured support for criminal prosecution of Trump administration officials. Supporting ICE and Border Patrol drew a net favorability of plus-63 for prosecution among Democratic voters. Stephen Miller specifically: plus-61. Pete Hegseth: plus-53. The message from the Democratic base isn't ambiguous — they want the people who enforce immigration law arrested for enforcing immigration law.
Sixty-nine percent supported expanding the Supreme Court. A majority backed eliminating the Senate filibuster. Net support for public ownership of healthcare, pharmaceuticals, the electrical grid, railroads, and AI.
This is the same party that spent four years calling January 6th an insurrection against democracy. The same people who said challenging election results was an existential threat to the republic. The same political movement that turned "norms" into a sacred word and then, when asked directly, told a pollster they'd support the military removing a president who won a free and fair election.
Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Charlie Kirk was targeted at Utah Valley University. Those aren't hypotheticals from a survey. Those are things that happened to real people in real places, and 32 percent of Democratic voters just told a pollster the outcome wouldn't have bothered them.
The poll surveyed 683 people. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.75 points. The survey period was September 3 through 10. The methodology is public. The numbers are what they are.
Fifty-nine percent.