--- description: Trump's vow to exact vengeance and suspending the Constitution appeals to some voters. The reasons for this are unusual. Let's unpack them! title: Trump's Position in 2024 Shows Voters More Open to Autocracy image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e0f23847177a9f8/698a437b457a526807d68463/GettyImages-1860796807.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [The D.C. Brief](/tag/the-dc-brief/) ## The D.C. Brief Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Americans Appear More Amenable to Autocracy in 2024  by [Philip Elliott](/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent Jan 1, 2024 12:00 PM CUT  Former President Donald Trump applauds at a campaign event in Waterloo, Iowa, on December 19, 2023. Former President Donald Trump applauds at a campaign event in Waterloo, Iowa, on December 19, 2023.Kamil Krzacynski—AFP via Getty Images  by [Philip Elliott](/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent Jan 1, 2024 12:00 PM CUT _This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up_ [_here_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite "undefined") _to get stories like this sent to your inbox._ It was meant, as ever, as a softball question for his pal, but former President Donald Trump couldn’t just take the gimme from Sean Hannity. The Fox News host wanted to bat down the ample reporting that Trump and his allies were already laying the groundwork for a return to power, replete with penance for his foes, punishment for his enemies, and penalties for those who stood in his way. “Under no circumstances, you’re promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?” Hannity asked Trump in Davenport, Iowa, back on Dec. 5. But the former President, as ever, could not help himself. “Except for day one,” Trump [replied](https://apnews.com/article/trump-hannity-iowa-town-hall-d9cad413851b60f6c0abd2a564d86338 "undefined"). It was a stunning [declaration](https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4343945-hannity-town-hall-trump-iowa-live-updates/ "undefined"), one that Democrats thought might be the key disqualifying piece of [evidence](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX0iAmz9iLM "undefined") in their case for ensuring Trump never again be allowed near the White House. Yet at that exact moment, the prestigious Des Moines _Register_ poll was in the field, and what it [found](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2023/12/17/vermin-trump-iowa-republicans/71950815007/ "undefined") complicates the critics’ read of Trump’s answer. Among likely Iowa Republican caucusgoers, the poll found, a full one-fifth—[19%](https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/iowa-poll/caucus/2023/12/17/iowa-poll-republicans-not-backing-away-from-donald-trump-amid-escalating-rhetoric-2024-election/71882561007/ "undefined")—believe such a quest for vengeance makes it _more_ likely that they would support Trump. The survey also found a full 14% were more inclined to back Trump based on his lies alleging fraud in the 2020 election justified his terminating parts of the Constitution. More broadly, 50% said Trump’s plans for "sweeping raids, giant camps and mass deportations" made him a more attractive candidate, and a solid 43% were more likely to vote for Trump based on his comments that "the radical left thugs that live like vermin" in the country needed to be rooted out. And 42% apparently experienced a similar surge of support when told that Trump has said immigrants who enter the United States illegally are "poisoning the blood.” Put simply: Trump’s most audacious [aspirations](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/20/us/politics/trump-rhetoric-fascism.html "undefined") for an American autocracy are not costing him with the voters he needs the most at this moment, just weeks before Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina prove to be his first test of a comeback. In fact, such comments may help Trump build a [firewall](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/11/us/politics/trump-iowa-poll-desantis-haley.html "undefined") against challengers like former South Carolina Gov. Nikki [Haley](https://time.com/6343669/ron-desantis-nikki-haley-fourth-republican-debate/ "undefined"), Florida Gov. Ron [DeSantis](https://time.com/6282255/ron-desantis-elon-musk-campaign-culture-war/ "undefined"), and tech bro Vivek [Ramaswamy](https://time.com/6316072/vivek-ramaswamy-donald-trump-maga-heir/ "undefined"). All the while, Trump is singing the praises of [dictators](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-praises-dictators-rails-immigrants-sparking-backlash/story?id=105725220 "undefined") and setting off alarms among [scholars](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/12/11/donald-trump-dictatorship-president-election-retribution/ "undefined") of autocracy. For many Americans, the four years of the Trump administration were an abomination, an abnormality that could be treated as a blip of lapsed judgment that involved millions of voters. [Maybe](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/10/fear-of-a-female-president/497564/ "undefined") it was the nation’s deep-seeded sexism manifesting itself in a contest between a deeply problematic Trump but a decades-despised Hillary Clinton back in 2016\. [Maybe](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/senate-panel-finds-russia-interfered-in-the-2016-us-election "undefined") Trump got a devious advantage thanks to Russian interference. [Maybe](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-comey-letter-probably-cost-clinton-the-election/ "undefined") it was a Justice Department lapse in judgment to reopen the probe of Clinton’s emails in the final push toward Election Day. The [phrase](https://time.com/4486502/hillary-clinton-basket-of-deplorables-transcript/ "undefined") _This Is Not Who We Are_ was on liberals’ lips for the entirety of Trump’s rise to and execution of power. The [political violence](https://time.com/5927664/capital-siege-trump-supporters/ "undefined") in Washington seen during Trump’s final days in office drew plenty of co-signers to that belief. But, in the almost three years since, polling has continued to suggest this uneasy truth: _Maybe It Was Who We Were—And Are._ The explanations are as plentiful as they are complicated. Trump understood that, for a slice of Americans, the changes—some say _progress_—the country has seen in achieving greater equity and prosperity have not benefited everyone equally. Shifting norms and expectations left many white, working-class voters aggravated and feeling disaffected. The rise of social media made it easier for these like-minded isolates to find each other and amplify their perspective. In other words, the components of a healthy democracy—a more-level field, demands for inclusion, and free debate of ideas—were turned against democracy itself. The intellectual architect of Vladimir Putin’s world, Alexander Dugin, [heralded](https://www.economist.com/erasmus/2016/11/20/russian-anti-liberals-love-donald-trump-but-it-may-not-be-entirely-mutual "undefined") the election of Trump as evidence that “the American people themselves have started the revolution against precisely the aspect of the US which we hated.” Trump is simply delivering on his promises to dismantle the foundational pieces of American life. For instance, Trump has [vowed](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/110531998908318312 "undefined") to appoint a special prosecutor to go after the Bidens, a very-Soviet move to weaponize the justice system against former foes as just desserts for Trump’s current legal woes. Where his lawyers checked his impulses the first time, his allies are [plotting](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/01/us/politics/trump-2025-lawyers.html "undefined") a more political framework than a legal one if given a second try. The makeup of his fantasy-league Cabinet puts [loyalty](https://www.axios.com/2023/12/07/trump-loyalty-cabinet-2025-carlson-miller-bannon "undefined") over competence. Thousands of federal workers who [predated](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/01/trump-second-term/?itid=lk%5Finline%5Fmanual%5F4 "undefined") him would have to pass [loyalty tests](https://www.axios.com/2022/07/22/trump-presidency-schedule-f-federal-employees "undefined") to keep their positions. His deputies would spend untold hours prosecuting or suing [journalists](https://www.axios.com/2022/07/22/trump-2025-radical-plan-second-term "undefined") who are critical of their actions. He’s even [floated](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/trump-milley-execution-incitement-violence/675435/ "undefined") the idea of executing his one-time top military adviser, Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley. Globally, this has been the trend in recent decades. Freedom House, a think tank dedicated to countering autocracy, [reports](https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2023/marking-50-years "undefined") that 80% of the world’s population lives under systems that are considered not free or only partially so. On the world stage, freedom is in its 17th year of net decline, with press freedoms facing legitimate threats in at least 157 countries. Which, sadly, makes Trump’s declaration that he would punish U.S. journalists for reporting less of an outlier. Anyone objectively looking at Washington right now understands why, for those simply glancing at the headlines in particular, Trump’s threats may not seem much worse than the status quo. This Congress is on track to be the [least-effective](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/least-productive-congress-since-great-depression%5Fn%5F65553d38e4b0e4767012b6df "undefined") legislature since the Great Depression. An embarrassing [22](https://www.congress.gov/public-laws/118th-congress "undefined") pieces of legislation got across the finish line this year, and some of those were as benign as creating a coin for the Marine Corps’ birthday and renaming V.A. clinics in New Mexico and Michigan. The House left town without any real progress on must-pass spending bills and will return in January with less than two weeks to get its act together. (If [history](https://time.com/6342955/mike-johnson-house-speaker-republicans/ "undefined") is any guide, this will not go well.) Americans aren’t hiding their retreat toward autocracy. In October, the Public Religion Research Institute published damning [polling](https://www.prri.org/research/threats-to-american-democracy-ahead-of-an-unprecedented-presidential-election/ "undefined") that indicated roughly four-in-10 Americans thought the country was so far afield from normal that it was time for a leader who would break the rules to fix the system. Among Republicans, the number almost reached half. The same think tank also found a surge in support for resorting to [political violence](https://time.com/6328179/political-violence-jan-6-extremism/ "undefined"); in March 2021, pollsters found 15% of Americans agreed that violence was merited, a number that rose to 23% this year. Among Republicans, that number reaches 33%. Americans know Trump is a threat to the way things are typically done. CNN’s polling [finds](https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/07/politics/cnn-poll-trump-biden-matchup/index.html "undefined") about a one-third of them said they thought Trump respects the rule of law. (Most respondents agreed Biden did.) But The Washington _Post_’s Phil Bump [notes](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/10/lot-americans-embrace-trumps-authoritarianism/ "undefined") that the survey found a 14-point delta between those who thought Trump would follow the rules and those who were willing to vote for him, even in holding his contempt of rules. They just don’t care. Take South Carolina. CNN’s [polling](https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/31/politics/americans-democracy-republicans-what-matters/index.html "undefined") there found 67% of likely Republican primary voters there say that, even if Trump did try to steal the 2020 election, it doesn’t matter. In CNN’s national [polling](https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23936298/cnn-poll-on-gop-primary-voters.pdf "undefined"), the verdict was similar. Autocracy can have an appeal. It brushes past the pesky system of legal checks, ethical concerns**,** and inefficient experts. No one can credibly say Trump didn’t shake up Washington during his four years here. Given another four to work with—and now knowing how to replace the establishment-minded pests with Yes Men—he could wreak far more havoc. But, should America make the pivot toward an autocratic Trump regime, it will have been because democracy made it possible—not despite it. In a Chicago Council of Global Affairs [poll](https://globalaffairs.org/research/public-opinion-survey/most-americans-willing-work-autocrats-protect-us "undefined") last year, only 60% of Americans said democracy is the best form of government. A separate Morning Consult [poll](https://pro.morningconsult.com/trend-setters/global-right-wing-authoritarian-test "undefined") from a year earlier [identified](https://www.businessinsider.com/26-percent-of-americans-are-right-wing-authoritarian-new-poll-2021-6 "undefined") more than a quarter of Americans carrying right-wing authoritarian bents. Maybe Trumpism is a symptom of what Americans believe in their cores. A second Trump term may just be a manifestation of why democracy doesn’t always run on autopilot or in a direct line. And, in those cases, true believers in democracy have to accept the results—and who we are. _Make sense of what matters in Washington._ [_Sign up for the D.C. Brief newsletter_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite "undefined")_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6550686/trump-autocracy-dictator-polling/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6550686/trump-autocracy-dictator-polling/"},"headline":"Americans Appear More Amenable to Autocracy in 2024","datePublished":"2024-01-01T12:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T16:53:32.241Z","description":"Polling suggests voters are not as turned off by Trump's vows of vengeance and Suspending the Constitution as one might hope.","url":"https://time.com/6550686/trump-autocracy-dictator-polling/","keywords":["The D.C. 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