Slightly more people believe President Donald Trump should be removed from office as a result of the Senate impeachment trial than those who say he should stay, but most agree the president has either done things that are illegal or unethical, according to a new Pew Research Center poll.
Fifty-one percent of U.S. adults said the trial should end with Trump's removal, while 46% said he should remain in office, according to the survey conducted from Jan. 6-19 among 12,638 U.S. adults on Pew Research Center's American Trends Panel. The poll carried a margin of error of plus or minus 1.3 percentage points.
The results were divided sharply along party, age, and race lines:
- 86% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said Trump should stay in office.
- 85% of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents said he should be removed.
- 56% of Americans aged 65 and older said Trump should stay.
- 63% of Americans under 30 said he should be removed.
- 82% of black Americans said Trump should be removed.
- 66% of Hispanics said he should be removed.
- 58% of white Americans said he should stay.
However, the divisions were different concerning whether Trump acted illegally or unethically:
- 63% of Americans said the president definitely (38%) or probably (25%) has done things that are illegal, either during his time in office or while he was running for president.
- 70% say Trump has definitely (45%) or probably (26%) done unethical things.
- 66% of Democrats said Trump has acted illegally.
- 8% of Republicans said he has definitely done illegal things and 23% said he has probably acted illegally.
The public also did not have confidence in either party to be "fair and reasonable" during the Senate's impeachment trial:
- 48% are at least somewhat confident that Senate Democrats will be fair and reasonable.
- 43% said Republicans would be fair and reasonable.
Trump's overall job ratings have not changed during the impeachment process:
- 40% approve of Trump's job performance.
- 58% disapprove.
- 92% of Democrats disapprove.
- 80% of Republicans approve.
In a September Pew poll, before the House of Representatives launched its impeachment inquiry, 40% approved of Trump's job performance and 59% disapproved.