{"id":28010,"date":"2025-06-25T15:06:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T19:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=28010"},"modified":"2025-06-25T15:06:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T19:06:17","slug":"is-the-us-a-dictatorship-these-voters-think-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/06\/is-the-us-a-dictatorship-these-voters-think-so","title":{"rendered":"Is the US a Dictatorship? These Voters Think So"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_28013\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-28013\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/06\/Trump-Dictator_credit-The-White-House.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-28013\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/06\/Trump-Dictator_credit-The-White-House.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-28013\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The White House<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A recent <a href=\"https:\/\/d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net\/documents\/Protests__Extremism__and_Violence_poll_results.pdf\">YouGov<\/a> poll is finding that a significant number of non-Trump voters believe the US is already a dictatorship. The poll was conducted June 16-18, 2025, just before Trump\u2019s hotly debated decision to assist Israel in bombing Iran\u2019s nuclear sites. According to the poll, only 13% of respondents believed democracy in America was working \u201cvery well.\u201d Over half, 56%, did not believe democracy was either working \u201cnot too well\u201d or \u201cnot at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fifty-six percent agreed that the United States is in the midst of a \u201cconstitutional crisis,\u201d while 24% stated they believed the US is a dictatorship. When looked at more closely, 35% of Democrats believed the US is a dictatorship, while 30% of independents believed the same. Seven percent of Republicans even said they believed so. Fifty-eight percent stated they believed the country is more politically divided.<\/p>\n<p>The current poll shows a rising belief that the United States is under authoritarian control. The same poll conducted February 3 \u2013 6, 2025 not long after Trump took office found that 18% agreed that the US is a dictatorship. Amongst Democrats, that number was 27% and amongst Independents it was 18%. How the recent events between Israel and Iran might impact those numbers has yet to be determined.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has often struck a dictatorial figure amongst his critics, with a recent article in <em>The New Yorker<\/em> featuring the title, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/letter-from-trumps-washington\/donald-trumps-dictator-cosplay\">Donald Trump\u2019s Dictator Cosplay<\/a>.\u201d The article cites Trump\u2019s actions in Los Angeles to quell anti-ICE riots, which included threats to send in the military, in contrast to Trump\u2019s own grandiose visions of a US miliary parade. \u201cHow telling, then, that the President who, in his first term, was frustrated in his attempt to throw a military-themed party for America is not only getting his parade this time but doing it on his own birthday. (A mere coincidence, according to Trump\u2019s defenders, who tell us that, really, it\u2019s only the \u201chaters\u201d who would bring up the President\u2019s birthday since the actual purpose of the parade is to celebrate the Army\u2019s two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary.),\u201d the article stated.<\/p>\n<p>The YouGov poll also showed an overall sense of fear in Americans beyond concerns of a homegrown dictatorship. 68% of Americans being either very or somewhat scared about world events. And, once again, this is before the United States had even bombed Iran or entered into the on-again off-again ceasefire between Israel and Iran. The currently shaky truce and how Trump intends to handle it, with or without the assistance of Congress, could greatly impact such future polling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent YouGov poll is finding that a significant number of non-Trump voters believe the US is already a dictatorship. The poll was conducted June 16-18, 2025, just before Trump\u2019s hotly debated decision to assist Israel in bombing Iran\u2019s nuclear sites. According to the poll, only 13% of respondents believed democracy in America was working&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":28013,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is the US a Dictatorship? These Voters Think So<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A new YouGov poll finds 1 in 4 Americans\u2014especially non-Trump voters\u2014believe the U.S. is already a dictatorship.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/06\/is-the-us-a-dictatorship-these-voters-think-so\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is the US a Dictatorship? 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These Voters Think So","description":"A new YouGov poll finds 1 in 4 Americans\u2014especially non-Trump voters\u2014believe the U.S. is already a dictatorship.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/06\/is-the-us-a-dictatorship-these-voters-think-so","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is the US a Dictatorship? These Voters Think So","og_description":"A new YouGov poll finds 1 in 4 Americans\u2014especially non-Trump voters\u2014believe the U.S. is already a dictatorship.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/06\/is-the-us-a-dictatorship-these-voters-think-so","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2025-06-25T19:06:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/06\/Trump-Dictator_credit-The-White-House.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/06\/is-the-us-a-dictatorship-these-voters-think-so","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/06\/is-the-us-a-dictatorship-these-voters-think-so","name":"Is the US a Dictatorship? 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