--- title: Donald Trump: Comey Firing Was Self-Protection, Poll Finds description: More than 60% of Americans think that President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in order to protect himself canonical: https://time.com/4810257/donald-trump-james-comey-firing-poll/ author: Aric Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-08T00:48:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T05:19:05.957Z article:section: Politics og:title: 61% of Americans Think President Trump Fired James Comey to Protect Himself og:description: According to a new poll og:url: https://time.com/4810257/donald-trump-james-comey-firing-poll/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91f3a83c663c70ba/6988cf4e7cdbacef74d5888b/trump-handshake-5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: President Trump Hosts The Inaugural Law Enforcement Officers And og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 61% of Americans Think President Trump Fired James Comey to Protect Himself twitter:description: According to a new poll twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91f3a83c663c70ba/6988cf4e7cdbacef74d5888b/trump-handshake-5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Poll: 61% of Americans Think President Trump Fired James Comey to Protect Himself > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Jun 8, 2017 12:48 AM UTC  Donald Trump shakes hands while attempting to embrace former FBI Director James Comey in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 22, 2017. Donald Trump shakes hands while attempting to embrace former FBI Director James Comey in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 22, 2017. Andrew Harrer—AP by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Jun 8, 2017 12:48 AM UTC More than 60% of Americans think that President Donald Trump [fired FBI Director James Comey](http://time.com/4773745/james-comey-fired-mcconnell-special-prosecutor/) in order to protect himself rather than to help the country, according to a new poll. Seven in 10 (72%) Americans don’t trust Trump’s word on Russia, but 55% also don’t buy Comey’s — likely a reflection of his own past controversies such as [Hillary Clinton’s email scandal](http://time.com/4773354/donald-trump-james-comey-fired-hillary-clinton-email-investigation/) and an overall distrust of the federal government, according to results from an [ABC News and Washington _Post_ survey](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/61-percent-trump-fired-comey-protect-poll/story?id=47864899). Only 27% felt that Trump dismissed Comey for the good of country. A majority of respondents (56%) believe the President is trying to interfere with the [Russia probe](http://time.com/4808685/trump-russia-watergate-james-clapper/) Comey was supervising prior to his firing. Even respondents who identified as conservatives expressed doubt about Trump’s word on Russia. The poll found that 60% had low trust about what the President says regarding Russia — just 33% said they had substantial trust. Comey will testify before Congress on Thursday following the Wednesday [release of his prepared opening statement ](http://time.com/4809570/james-comey-donald-trump-senate-intelligence-committee/)that corroborated reports about Trump’s interactions with the former FBI Director. In the document, Comey himself says that the President asked him for “loyalty” at a one-on-one dinner, which was first reported by the New York _Times_ [last month](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/11/us/politics/trump-comey-firing.html?%5Fr=0). The ABC News and Washington _Post_ poll was conducted over the phone between June 2 and June 4 among a random national sample of 527 adults. Both the English and Spanish languages were used to ask questions, depending on the respondent, and the margin of error was +/-5%. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4810257/donald-trump-james-comey-firing-poll/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4810257/donald-trump-james-comey-firing-poll/"},"headline":"Poll: 61% of Americans Think President Trump Fired James Comey to Protect Himself","datePublished":"2017-06-08T00:48:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T05:19:05.957Z","description":"Respondents don't exactly trust the former FBI director either","url":"https://time.com/4810257/donald-trump-james-comey-firing-poll/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91f3a83c663c70ba/6988cf4e7cdbacef74d5888b/trump-handshake-5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Aric Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91f3a83c663c70ba/6988cf4e7cdbacef74d5888b/trump-handshake-5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Hosts The Inaugural Law Enforcement Officers And","caption":"President Trump Hosts The Inaugural Law Enforcement Officers And","creditText":"Andrew Harrer—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4810257/donald-trump-james-comey-firing-poll/","name":"Poll: 61% of Americans Think President Trump Fired James Comey to Protect Himself"}}]}] ```