Ask a Democrat how far he or she would go to get rid of President Donald Trump, and the honest answer, according to a new poll of self-identified liberals by the Center for Strategic Politics, is further than anyone should be comfortable admitting out loud.
But let’s start with the numbers that shouldn't shock anyone.
As you might expect, 87% said they'd feel positive if Trump were impeached, convicted by both houses of Congress, and removed from office. Another 84% said they'd feel positive if Trump's Cabinet invoked the 25th Amendment and forced him out, with 70% landing on very positive. Fine. That's politics.
But it gets worse from there. So much worse.
According to the poll, 55% said they'd feel positive if Trump simply died in his sleep, compared with only 17% who'd feel negative and 28% who were neutral. The poll also found that 59% of liberals, a majority, said they'd feel positive if U.S. military leaders removed Trump from power and took control of the country, and 43% of them landed on very positive about a literal military takeover of the United States government.
Remember, a majority of the left, which pretends to defend “our democracy,” is okay with a military coup to remove Trump from office.
And it still gets worse.
The outright assassination of Trump drew disturbing levels of support. 32% said they'd feel positive if Trump were assassinated while speaking at a rally, broken down as 23% very positive and 9% somewhat positive. Only 43% said they'd feel negative, and 25% were neutral.
We polled five routes for Trump to leave office before the end of his term. A plurality of Dems support four of them, including a military coup and death by natural causes. The only one underwater, an assassination, is still supported by 29%. pic.twitter.com/C3qb2H0R8j
— Center for Strategic Politics (@StratPolitics) September 21, 2026
I still remember the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Trump in Butler, Pa., in July 2024. A vocal segment of the left made no secret of their anger that he survived.
Related: Why Can't More Democrats Be Like This?
Conservatives aren't like this. We never wished death on our political enemies. Heck, most of us spent the last administration hoping Joe Biden stayed alive, because the alternative was Kamala Harris in the Oval Office.
Of course, none of these results are all that shocking. A bombshell study last year found that violent political rhetoric, including open calls for the assassination of Trump and Elon Musk, is rapidly becoming normalized on the left.
The Network Contagion Research Institute found that more people are not only rationalizing politically motivated violence but also celebrating it as a twisted form of social justice. "What was formerly taboo culturally has become acceptable," Joel Finkelstein, the founder of NCRI, said at the time. "We are seeing a clear shift – glorification, increased attempts and changing norms – all converging into what we define as 'assassination culture.'"
A majority of the left-wing voters surveyed reacted positively to a hypothetical military overthrow of the president, with nearly half giving the strongest possible positive response, all from the same party that has spent a decade lecturing the rest of us about protecting "our democracy."
The real story here isn't which method of removing Trump polled best. It's how easily a large share of the left has talked itself into believing that removing him by any means, up to and including violence, is simply the cost of doing politics.