A majority of Americans are more likely to agree with the statement “President Trump is a potentially dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy” (58%) than with the statement “President Trump is a strong leader who should be given the power he needs to restore America’s greatness” (37%). According to the survey, conducted by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute.
The percentage of Americans who see Trump as a potentially dangerous dictator has grown, from 52% in March 2025 to 56% in September 2025 to 58% today. Most Democrats (90%, up from 87% in March) agree with the first statement and most Republicans agree with the second statement (77%, slightly down from 81% in March). The proportion of independents who agree that Trump is a dangerous dictator has increased by 8 percentage points since March, from 56% to 64%.
The survey was conducted among a representative sample of 5,200 adults(age 18 and up) living in all 50 states in the United States, who are part of Ipsos’s KnowledgePanel and an additional 339 who were recruited by Ipsos using opt-in survey panels.
