By Jason Lange
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -More than half of Americans, including about three in 10 Republicans, believe President Donald Trump is using federal law enforcement to go after his enemies, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll that also found growing concern about U.S. political divisions nine months into his second term in office.
Some 55% of poll respondents in the six-day poll, which closed on Monday, agreed with a statement that the Republican president is using law enforcement to target his enemies, while 26% disagreed and the rest were unsure or did not respond. Some 85% of the poll respondents who identified themselves as Democrats agreed, as did 29% of the Republican poll takers.
Trump’s Justice Department in the past month has brought criminal charges against three prominent adversaries of the president, including former FBI director James Comey, New York state Attorney General Letitia James and former National Security Adviser John Bolton. All three have denied wrongdoing.
The U.S. Justice Department has historically kept an arm’s length distance from the president, seeking to protect prosecutorial independence.
Trump campaigned ahead of the 2024 presidential election with pledges for retribution against his enemies. He had particular disdain for Comey and James, who had led criminal probes against him that he contends were politically motivated. Trump has denied ordering the Justice Department to indict his foes, though last month he appeared to push federal prosecutors to charge Comey and James.
DIVIDED AND UNSETTLED
The poll revealed a nation deeply divided, and unsettled by its divisions.
Some 67% of respondents expressed at least a fair amount of concern about U.S. political division and conflict. The share who voiced “a great deal” of worry about it rose to 43%, up from 39% in an October 2023 Reuters/Ipsos poll. Trump’s current term in office has been marked by high-profile political violence, including the assassinations of a Democratic state lawmaker and a prominent Republican activist. Trump himself was wounded last year in an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania.
Just 8% of respondents, a small number in terms of public opinion polling, agreed with a statement that “to achieve my idea of a better society, violent acts are acceptable.” Similarly small percentages of respondents said it was okay for people in their political party to commit violence or threaten people to achieve political goals.
Among the respondents, 31% identified themselves as Republicans, 28% as Democrats and 41% as not affiliated with either party.
The Republican respondents expressed more concern than Democrats about extremism within their own party’s ranks. Poll respondents were asked whether each political party was too extreme, too willing to compromise or appropriately balanced between the two options. Among Republicans, 18% said they considered their own party too extreme, compared to 11% of Democrats.
Political polarization has been on the rise for decades in the United States. It has appeared particularly acute in recent months as Trump’s fellow Republicans, and then opposition Democrats, stepped up efforts to redraw the boundaries of voting districts to favor their party’s candidates in the November 2026 congressional elections.
Some 61% of poll respondents said these redistricting plans were bad for democracy. The same percentage also said it is no longer possible to draw the boundaries fairly.
The poll, which was conducted online, gathered responses from 4,385 U.S. adults nationwide. The results had margins of error between 2 and 3 percentage points.
(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Scott Malone and Will Dunham)
