52% of Americans say Trump should be convicted in impeachment trial, poll shows

A slim majority of Americans support convicting former President Donald Trump in his upcoming impeachment trial after a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, according to a new poll.

Fifty-two percent of respondents in a Gallup poll say they favor convicting Trump, while 45% say they don’t want him to be convicted and 3% aren’t sure.

The poll, conducted Jan. 21 to Feb. 2, includes 906 adults in the United States and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Polls show Americans are more supportive now of convicting Trump than when he was accused of leveraging U.S. aid to pressure Ukrainian officials to investigate then-presidential candidate Joe Biden. He was impeached by the House of Representatives in December 2019 but was acquitted.

In a similar January 2020 Gallup poll, 46% of respondents said they favored convicting Trump, while 51% were opposed.

The recent Gallup survey split along party lines, with 89% of Democrats supporting conviction and 7% opposing it. Among Republicans, 88% said they oppose conviction while 10% support it.

The U.S. House of Representatives impeached Trump last month on the charge of “incitement of insurrection” for his role in the Capitol siege. Before the attack, Trump spoke outside the White House at what he billed a “Save America Rally,” where he continued his false claims of election fraud and encouraged his supporters to march to the Capitol.

Trump is the first president to be impeached twice. No president has ever been convicted in the Senate, which requires a two-thirds majority vote.

Progress made under Trump, Obama and Bush

In the recent poll, respondents said Trump made some progress during his presidency, with 51% saying the U.S. made strides with the economy while 38% said the country “lost ground” on the economy.

Forty-nine percent of respondents said the U.S. made progress with the military and national defense, 46% said they saw progress with energy, and 35% said the same about the situation in Afghanistan.

Thirty-seven percent of people said the situation for gay and lesbian Americans saw progress, while 33% said it regressed.

Americans were more critical of Trump’s presidency when it came to the issues of race relations, education, climate change, the wealth gap, immigration, health care, crime and trade.

Gallup also compared perceptions of Trump’s presidency with former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush. Americans’ views on Trump’s performance were better than those for Obama and Bush on the economy, national defense, taxes and terrorism.

Trump and Bush scored the same on crime, topping Obama. Trump and Obama had the same rating on immigration and surpassed Bush’s score.

Obama and Bush both had better ratings than Trump on race relations, education and climate change/the environment. Americans’ views of Obama on health care, the position of the U.S. in the world and energy were more positive than for Trump.

This story was originally published February 8, 2021 at 11:40 AM with the headline "52% of Americans say Trump should be convicted in impeachment trial, poll shows."