BREAKING: New PRRI Poll Finds Three Quarters of Americans Oppose Trump's Military Parade
Even a majority of Republicans oppose Trump's $45 million self-aggrandizing spectacle.
There’s a lot going on this week, mostly centered around President Trump’s deployment of the military on US soil. On the West Coast, Trump has unilaterally deployed 4,000 national guard troops and 700 marines to Los Angeles amid protests over aggressive ICE arrests of undocumented immigrants. And this Saturday on the East Coast, just a few miles from my home and blocks from PRRI’s offices, Trump is marshaling more than 6,000 soldiers along with tanks and other military vehicles to stage an authoritarian-style military parade that just happens to coincide with his own birthday.
But a large new national survey, released Tuesday by , found that three quarters of Americans—including majorities of Trump supporters such as Republicans and white evangelical Protestants—oppose Trump’s $45 million military parade.
Here are the major findings. You can read the full results on the PRRI website.
Most Americans (76%) oppose spending $45 million to hold a large parade of soldiers, weapons, and combat vehicles on the streets of Washington, D.C., in celebration of the Army’s 250th birthday and President Trump’s birthday, including 48% who strongly oppose. Only 21% of Americans favor staging the military parade. Solid majorities of Democrats (93%) and independents (80%) oppose the military parade. Even majorities of Republicans (52%) and Americans who hold favorable views of Trump (52%) oppose Trump’s military parade.
Majorities of all major religious groups oppose Trump’s military parade. In most religious groups and among the religiously unaffiliated, eight in ten or more oppose Trump’s military parade. While white Christian groups express less opposition, roughly two-thirds or more of white mainline/non-evangelical Protestants (72%), white Catholics (65%), and white evangelical Protestants (64%) oppose this military parade. A majority of Latter-Day Saints (55%) also opposed this military parade.
Even among Trump’s most ardent supporters — those Americans who qualify as Christian nationalism Adherents and Sympathizers — solid majorities oppose the military parade (58% and 62%, respectively). Opposition is much higher among those who qualify as Christian nationalism Skeptics (80%) or Rejecters (95%).
This data makes it clear that Trump’s ego has outrun even his own supporters. Only one in five Americans back Trump’s attempt to give himself this $45 million garish spectacle of a birthday present.
ICYMI on #WhiteTooLong
ICYMI, I’m including two recent posts below. If you missed my live conversation with Ruth Ben-Ghiat Tuesday night (video below), I want to let you know about another LIVE webinar event this afternoon. At 5pm ET, I’ll be joining my colleagues at Unscripted (Jemar Tisby, Diana Butler Bass, and Kristin Du Mez) for our monthly LIVE podcast. Hope you will join us! It’s free and registration link is below.
Empathy and Solidarity are the Antidotes to Authoritarianism: My Conversation with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of "Strongmen"
Thanks to all the paid WTL subscribers last night who joined me for the most recent WTL Author Salon. We had a rich conversation with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University. Her latest book, a New York Times bestseller,
Trump Sees Himself as the King of Kings: My Interview at Salon
I’ve now had a years-long ongoing conversation about Donald Trump, white supremacy, and the Christian nationalist threat to democracy with journalist Chauncey DeVega at Salon. This week, Salon published our latest interview. I’ve included key excerpts below, and you can
PRRI's latest poll numbers are encouraging as Saturday approaches. There is a protest in my town which is also heartening. I encourage everyone to listen to the interview with Ruth Ben-Ghiat. I am happy to say her book Strongmen is in my local library, and I have requested it. The Salon interview is excellent also. I appreciate all you do to keep so many folks so well informed.
It amazes me, given the integrity of PRRI’s polling, that this organization is not cited more often as a reliable and accurate insight into worldviews of America. GREAT WORK as always.