Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Majority of Americans support FBI’s raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home

Republicans have claimed the search was politically motivated

Eric Garcia
Washington DC
Wednesday 17 August 2022 20:41 BST
Comments
Michael Cohen says Trump kept Mar-a-Lago documents as 'bargaining chip'
Leer en Español

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

A new YouGov poll shows that Americans largely approve of the FBI’s search of former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida.

The poll surveyed 1,500 adult citizens of the United States between 13 August and 16 August 2022.

The survey found that 42 per cent of Americans “stongly approve” of the FBI executing a search warrant in relation to its probe of whether Mr Trump violated the Presidential Records Act, while 12 per cent of Americans say that they “somewhat approve” of it.

Comparatively, 36 per cent say they disapprove, with nine per cent saying they “somewhat disapprove” and 29 per cent saying they “strongly disapprove.”

The partisan breakdown is also stark. While 86 per cent of Democrats approve of the search, 72 per cent of Republicans disapprove in some way. Opinion among independents is more split, with 47 per cent supporting the search and 37 per cent disapproving, while 17 per cent were “not sure.”

The poll comes a week after the FBI executed the search warrant and Mr Trump has vehemently criticised the FBI’s actions.

The same poll found that Americans were split between whether the search was a serious attempt to discover what really happened or politically motivated, with 39 per cent saying that the search was a serious attempt to find out what really happened while 36 per cent said it was politically movitated. But 14 per cent said that the FBI was motivated by both of these and 11 per cent said they were not sure.

But 56 per cent of people surveyed said they disapproved of Mr Trump having documents related to nuclear weapons, with Republicans evenly split at 37 per cent each approving and disapproving, and 53 per cent of independents disapproving.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in