At Least 18 Million Americans Support Use of Violence to Restore Trump to White House – News18

At least 7% of Americans who participated in a survey agreed that the use of force is justified to restore former US President Donald Trump to the White House. A report titled “Dangers to Democracy” which was released by the Chicago Project on Security Threats (CPST) earlier in June found increasing support for the use of violence.

Earlier, the number was 4.5% and the spike means that there is an “equivalent of an estimated shift from 12 million to 18 million American adults”, according to the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) and CPST survey.

At least 4.5% held this belief when a separate survey was carried out in April last year.

The spike shows the response of a section of Americans who may have developed a “more intense commitment to Trump following the announcement of the federal indictment against him”, the surveyors said.

Trump was indicted on June 9, 2023 and the survey began on June 26 – about two and a half weeks later.

The former US president was charged earlier this year by the Justice Department with 31 counts of willful retention of national defence information, one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, one count of making false statements and four additional offences pertaining to different forms of concealment, the Hill said in its report.

It also highlighted that the one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice itself carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges on June 13.

This was Trump’s second indictment and also his first federal indictment following his decision to run for the Presidency in the 2024 US elections.

Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg charged him in April over alleged hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Trump pleaded not guilty in that case too.

Trump ‘predicted’ that a third indictment and second federal indictment is headed his way over his alleged involvement in the January 6, 2021 Capitol Hill riots in which a violent mob stormed the Capitol Hill to try and overturn the election results of the 2021 Presidential Elections.

The survey also showed that about 40% Americans share at least “one attitude reflecting deep distrust of American democratic institutions”. At least 20% of Americans believe in ““anti-democratic political conspiracy theories about how the country is run”.

The survey consisted of a random sample of 3,543 people with a margin of error of 2.30% and was carried out between June 22-26.