COMMENT: 55% of Americans Support Impeachment — The Poll That Haunts the Trump Coalition

Maxime Marquette

2026-06-27 15:57:23

A Breakdown of the 55% Figure

The raw figure of 55% is striking. But the real story lies in the subgroups. Among independents—those swing voters who tipped the scales in Trump’s favor in November 2024—50% now support impeachment, compared with just 28% who oppose it. That’s a 22-point gap. Among non-voters, support for impeachment stands at 53%, compared with 25% who oppose it. Even among older voters—historically a reliable bloc for Trump—the majority is evaporating: 47% in favor, 51% opposed.

Most telling of all: 21% of voters who voted for Trump in 2024 now support impeachment. One in five Trump supporters. Morris put it bluntly: “Roughly one out of every five of the people who put him back in office now want him gone.” This is not a marginal political signal. It is an arithmetic betrayal at the very heart of his electoral base.

The intensity gap: the detail that changes everything

But the most underestimated figure in this poll is the 15-point gap in intensity. Forty-five percent of American adults strongly support impeachment. Only 30 percent strongly oppose it. This means that those who want to see Trump removed from office are not lukewarm. They are mobilized, determined voters who will turn out to vote in the November 2026 midterm elections.

Conversely, Trump’s supporters are showing signs of waning intensity. The share of Republicans who strongly support Trump’s performance has fallen from 61% in April to 53% in June 2026, according to the Marist poll. That’s an eight-point drop in two months among the hardest-line faction of his own political base—a slow-motion collapse.

This gap in intensity is, in my view, far more dangerous for Trump than the raw figure of 55%. In American politics, it’s not opinions that decide elections—it’s strong opinions. And here, Trump is losing the battle for passion among his own supporters.

Nixon Territory: A Historical Comparison That Should Send Shivers Down Your Spine

Watergate as a Distorting Mirror

G. Elliott Morris dared to make the comparison that many avoided: this level of support for impeachment places Trump in what political scientists now call “Nixon territory.” In August 1974, at the height of the Watergate scandal, Gallup found that 58% of Americans wanted to see Nixon removed from office. A few days later, Nixon resigned. Trump stands at 55%. The gap is three points.

The historical comparison goes further. During Trump’s first impeachment in 2019, over the Ukraine affair, support for impeachment reached 52% in the Gallup poll. After January 6, 2021, ABC News/Washington Post reported 56%. Pew Research Center: 54%. Gallup: 52%. The April 2026 figure—55%—matches or exceeds these historic highs. And for the first time since his return to power, this has occurred without a triggering event as dramatic as the Capitol riot.

The Crucial Difference from Previous Impeachments

What sets this April 2026 poll apart from those that preceded it is its context of relative normality. There was no armed insurrection. There were no compromising phone calls. There was simply the wear and tear of governance: absurd tariffs, a war with Iran that was unpopular from the very start, damaged institutions, and economic policies that are weighing on the middle class’s wallets. A Lake Research Partners poll, commissioned by Free Speech For People, confirmed in April 2026 that 52% of likely voters in the 2026 election support impeachment—40% oppose it.

What we’re seeing here isn’t a fleeting outburst of anger. It’s a deep-seated institutional fatigue in the face of a presidency that has normalized transgression. And this fatigue, unlike anger, is enduring.

I want to be honest about the limitations of the Nixon comparison. Nixon had Republican senators ready to abandon him—Barry Goldwater himself went to the White House to tell him the game was over. Today, the Republican Senate is holding firm. But the polls in the summer of 1974 didn’t point to an imminent resignation either—until it happened.

Independents: The Divided Heart of the Trump Coalition

2024 vs. 2026: The Big Turnaround

In November 2024, independents split their votes almost evenly between Trump and his Democratic opponent. It was this performance among unaffiliated voters that made his victory possible. Today, that same demographic has become the main driver of his collapse in the polls. According to CNN analyst Harry Enten, independents have “shifted massively against him”—“and particularly on this war” with Iran.

The June 2026 Marist poll is brutal for Trump in this segment: 64% of independents disapprove of his overall performance. On the war in Iran specifically, the net approval rating among independents has dropped from -23 points at the start of the conflict to -40 points today. Forty points in the red. Enten put it bluntly on CNN: “The most unpopular war at the start of a war that I could ever find, ever, has become even more unpopular.”

Why Independents Are the Key to the Impeachment Poll

In the Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll, independents (including those who lean toward one party) support impeachment by a margin of 50% to 28%. That’s a 22-point gap in a group that defines itself precisely by its tendency to reject extreme positions. When 50% of American independents support impeachment, it is no longer a partisan stance—it is an institutional judgment.

This shift among independents is what gives the poll its historic significance. It means that support for impeachment is not confined to the Democratic bubble. It spills over into the general electorate, into those swing districts where the midterm elections will be decided, into those educated suburbs where moderate voters voted for Trump in 2024 with a heavy heart and now regret it.

I think of independent voters as a barometer, not a party. They aren’t easily outraged. When they swing 40 points against a war, when 50% of them support impeachment, it’s because they’ve calculated, weighed the options, and rendered their verdict. These voters don’t change their minds easily. Trump has a structural problem with them.

The Silent Erosion of the Republican Base

22% of Republicans Oppose the Economic Policy

The figure that most unsettles Republican strategists isn’t necessarily the 55% of the general population. It’s this one: 22% of Republicans disapprove of Trump’s economic management, according to the June 2026 NPR/PBS News/Marist poll. One in five Republican voters. In a party that operates on tribal discipline and quasi-clan-like loyalty to its leader, this silent dissent is explosive.

And that’s not all. According to the Jacobin/Working-Class Political Action survey of 1,940 voters who voted for Trump in 2024, more than 20% of them do not plan to vote Republican in 2028. One in five. That’s the same proportion as in the impeachment poll. This is no coincidence: it’s the same divide, measured by two different tools.

Strong Republican support is also eroding

What stands out in the June 2026 Marist data is the shift in strong support within the Republican Party. In April 2026, 61% of Republicans said they strongly approved of Trump’s performance. By June 2026, that figure had dropped to 53%. A loss of eight points among the most die-hard segment of the base in just two months. This shift is all the more significant because “strong supporters” are the party’s hard core—those who go door-to-door, fund campaigns, and mobilize their networks.

When this core begins to waver, the consequences aren’t measured solely in poll percentages. They’re measured in missing volunteers, in donations that don’t come in, and in Republican midterm candidates who are beginning to put a safe distance between themselves and a leader who is becoming an increasingly heavy burden electorally.

I must confess to feeling some anxiety about this scenario. I am not anti-Trump out of ideological reflex. I acknowledge that he has stood up to Beijing and Moscow with a firmness that his predecessors did not always possess. But a democracy whose hard core begins to doubt its own president on fundamental institutional issues—that is a wake-up call that no one, on the left or the right, should ignore.

The War Against Iran: The Catalyst for the Break

The Most Unpopular Conflict in Recent Memory

The impeachment poll cannot be understood without its immediate context: the war against Iran. It’s worth noting that the Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll was conducted from April 10 to 14, 2026—right in the midst of the conflict’s escalation. More than 85 members of Congress—including both Democratic representatives and senators—had by then called for impeachment or invoking the 25th Amendment after Trump threatened, on Truth Social, to annihilate “all of Iranian civilization.”

Harry Enten put the data into perspective on CNN with a precision that leaves one speechless: the net approval rating for the war in Iran, which was already at -9 points at the outset—making it the most unpopular war from the very start that the analyst had ever found in the archives—plummeted to -23 points a few weeks later. Among independents: from -23 to -40 points. That’s a free fall.

Four Republicans Crack in the House

On June 4, 2026, something happened in the House of Representatives that caught the attention of all observers on Capitol Hill: four Republicans crossed the aisle to join the Democrats and vote on a resolution on war powers, ordering Trump to end military operations in Iran without congressional authorization. NPR called this vote “the clearest rebuke yet of President Trump’s handling of the conflict.”

In absolute terms, this number isn’t impressive. But symbolically, it’s significant. These four Republican votes are a visible sign of a much broader dissent that doesn’t yet dare to vote against the president but is grumbling in the hallways, in caucus meetings, and in private conversations. The war in Iran has served as a catalyst for a split within a coalition already weakened by economic tensions and institutional damage.

On the war in Iran, I’ll be blunt: I’m not a pacifist. Iran funds Hezbollah, indirectly supports Putin, and its ballistic missiles threaten Israel and the West’s regional allies. But a war waged through tweets and ultimatums on Truth Social—without a clear strategy, without an international coalition, and with threats to annihilate a civilization—is precisely the kind of foreign policy that destroys the alliances the West has spent decades building.

Economic Erosion: When Workers Abandon the Tribune

Workers Without College Degrees Are Turning Away

One of the pillars of Trump’s victory in 2024 was his hold on white workers without college degrees—the “working class” that Democrats had lost since the 1990s. This core group of his coalition is now turning away from him on economic issues. According to the NPR/PBS News/Marist poll, only one-third of white voters without a college degree approve of Trump’s handling of the economy—down from about half in April 2025.

Regina Kulenga, a 36-year-old Trump voter in Georgia, told NPR what millions are thinking: “The economy is suffering a lot right now, and I just feel like a lot of the things he did promise, we’re still waiting for.” ” And later: “He’s not doing anything right now for the economy but making things—in my opinion—a lot worse than they were.” This isn’t a Democratic voice. It’s a former supporter taking stock of the situation.

Rural Americans, Latinos, Gen Z: A Cross-Sectional Breakdown

Trump’s collapse in the polls isn’t concentrated in any single group—it’s widespread. Rural Americans, another pillar of the 2024 coalition, have gone from a net advantage of +22 points for Trump in February 2025 to a 10-point deficit in June 2026. Latinos disapprove of Trump by a two-to-one margin. Gen Z—despite being aggressively courted by Trump and his inner circle—now has an approval rating of just 25%.

This sociological portrait of the collapse—rural, Latino, young, working class—outlines the exact geography of the swing districts that Republicans must defend in November 2026. Every point lost among these groups represents a district that flips, a seat that changes hands, and a House majority that dwindles until it vanishes.

There is something almost tragic about Regina Kulenga’s story. She voted for Trump. She trusted him. She defended him to her family. And now, she looks at her grocery bill, the prices at the gas pump, and she isn’t getting the answers she was promised. Politics isn’t about empty promises. It’s about concrete results in real people’s lives.

Congress Faces the Polls: Strategy or Paralysis?

The Rise of the Impeachment Faction Among Democrats

On the Democratic side, this poll is fueling political momentum. Representative Delia Ramirez (Illinois) stated unequivocally, according to Axios: “We need a solid, well-coordinated strategy.” ” Her vision: to prepare the impeachment case now, even before a hypothetical Democratic majority in January 2027. “Beginning this process in January is too late,” she said, comparing the approach to how Republicans had prepared for the impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas before regaining the majority in the House in 2022.

The shift within the Democratic ranks is well documented: during an initial vote forced by Representative Al Green in June 2025, only 78 Democrats supported impeachment. By December 2025, that number had risen to 140. And by April 2026, more than 85 members of Congress were calling for impeachment or invoking the 25th Amendment. The trajectory is clear and upward.

The obstacles: arithmetic realism and electoral strategy

But not all Democrats share Ramirez’s enthusiasm. Centrist Representative Brad Schneider (Illinois) points out an inescapable constitutional fact: “Unless a two-thirds majority is achieved in the Senate, the president will not be removed from office.” What he’s saying in plain terms: an impeachment vote in the House would be symbolically powerful but politically meaningless if the Republican-controlled Senate acquits Trump a third time.

An anonymous Democrat quoted by Axios takes this cold realism a step further: “There are issues we can successfully address, and impeachment is not one of them—or, regrettably, at any point during this presidency.” ” This internal debate among Democrats is revealing: the question is no longer “should we impeach Trump”—the polls have settled that—but “when, how, and in service of what overall electoral strategy.” November 2026 remains the overarching horizon that shapes everything.

I’m torn on the issue of Democratic strategy. Impeachment as a symbolic gesture with no chance of Senate approval—I understand the arguments against it. But Ramirez is right on one point: failing to set the stage means letting the opponent define the stage. The Republicans learned that in 2022. The Democrats are learning it in 2026.

Trump himself predicted his own impeachment

The President’s Prophetic Self-Criticism

It’s worth recalling a fact that history will remember: On January 6, 2026, during a meeting with House Republicans, Trump himself warned his allies: “If we don’t win the midterms, I will be impeached.” ” He knew it. His team knew it. The issue of impeachment is not a Democratic invention—it is a reality that Trump factors into his political calculations.

This statement, reported by Reuters on January 6, 2026, is the unwitting admission of a president who understands exactly where the breaking point lies. He knows that his political survival depends on maintaining the Republican majority in the House. And that is precisely why every unfavorable poll, every unpopular decision, every Republican in the House who rolls his eyes takes on existential significance.

The “YOLO Republicans”: Organized Dissent

In February 2026, Politico identified a new and troubling phenomenon for Trump: the “YOLO Republicans”—those Republican elected officials who, having nothing left to lose electorally in their districts, are beginning to distance themselves from the president. Some represent districts that have become too competitive. Others have decided not to run for re-election. Still others calculate that being associated with an unpopular Trump will do more harm to their future careers than a courageous act of dissent today.

This visible Republican dissent—the four votes on the Iran resolution, the dissenting voices on the economy, the calculated silences at presidential rallies—is the tip of the iceberg of internal resistance. The 55% approval rating for impeachment among the general public provides them with political cover. The higher that number climbs, the more moderate Republicans can afford to maintain a cautious distance.

The “YOLO Republicans” interest me more than any other American political phenomenon right now. They are not idealists. They are strategists who have done the math and concluded that Trump is a net liability. When the strategists in a party begin to distance themselves from a leader, it means the political balance sheet is irreparably in the red.

What the Poll Reveals About U.S. Institutions

Impeachment as a Trivialized Constitutional Mechanism

We need to address an uncomfortable truth: the repeated attempts at impeachment—two during the first term, several during the second—are normalizing a constitutional mechanism designed for extraordinary circumstances. When 55% of Americans respond favorably to the question “Do you want the House to vote for impeachment?”, one might wonder whether this percentage reflects an opinion specifically about Trump, or a general willingness to use impeachment as a routine tool of political punishment.

G. Elliott Morris himself noted an important methodological nuance: his poll asked about a House impeachment vote—a lower constitutional threshold than “impeach and remove.” This distinction does not invalidate the result, but it calls for caution in interpreting it. Impeachment by the House and removal by the Senate are two radically different processes. The 55% figure from the poll does not automatically foreshadow a two-thirds majority in the Senate.

Democratic health as measured by a poll

What this poll reveals most fundamentally about American institutions is their paradoxical resilience: even under a presidency that has methodically tested the limits of executive power, the constitutional checks and balances—public opinion, Congress, the midterms—continue to function. The fact that 21% of Trump’s 2024 voters now want him impeached is a sign that democratic safeguards are not entirely broken—they are under extreme strain, but they are holding up.

The West needs a strong American democracy, not because it is perfect, but because it is the benchmark against which Beijing and Moscow constantly seek to undermine its legitimacy. Every American institutional crisis is a geopolitical gift to Xi Jinping and Putin. It is in this context that this poll takes on its full significance—not just as an internal barometer, but as a signal to the entire free world.

I am pro-West, viscerally and without hesitation. And that is precisely why I am alarmed by the weakening of American institutions. Not because Trump is evil—he has his merits on certain issues requiring geopolitical firmness. But a democracy that normalizes impeachment as a partisan tool, that trivializes threats to destroy civilizations via tweet, that allows a single man to concentrate so much executive power without any effective checks and balances—such a democracy sends the wrong signal to the rest of the free world.

The Midterm Scenario: When Polls Become an Election Issue

Democrats: Between Enthusiasm and Strategic Discipline

The November 2026 midterm elections are the key focus shaping all of current American politics. And the data is troubling for Republicans. The June 2026 NPR/PBS News/Marist poll explicitly states that “Democrats show more enthusiasm to vote and see a path to regain control of both the House and Senate.” This is no longer just a hypothesis—it is now the official assessment of one of the country’s most respected polls.

To retake the House, Democrats need only a handful of seats. And the districts where these seats could swing are precisely those with the highest concentration of independents—the very same independents who support impeachment by 50% and disapprove of the war in Iran by a net 40 points. The electoral geography and the geography of the poll overlap with unsettling precision.

If the Democrats retake the House in January 2027

What would happen if the Democrats regain the majority in the House in November 2026? According to Rep. Yass Ansari (D), as quoted by Axios: “The momentum for impeachment will be substantial.” Delia Ramirez is even more direct in her statements: the plan is to vote on impeachment on the very first day of the new Congress in January 2027. An impeachment vote requires only a simple majority—218 votes. If the Democrats retake the House, they will have those votes.

Trump knows this. That’s why he told his Republican allies in January 2026: “If we don’t win the midterms, I will be impeached.” The prophecy is set in motion. The 55% poll is one of the tools that could make it happen. But even if impeachment does occur, the Senate—where Republicans will likely retain their majority—will never vote to remove him with the required 67 votes. This does not diminish the symbolic and historical impact of a third impeachment.

A third impeachment of Trump would be unprecedented in American history. Not because it would necessarily be justified on its merits—I’ll leave that to the constitutional scholars. But because it would send a resounding signal: there are limits that even the world’s most powerful democracy will not allow to be crossed indefinitely. That signal has a significance that extends far beyond U.S. borders.

Economic approval ratings: the true barometer of the coalition

33% on the economy: the figure that says it all

Among all the figures that make up Trump’s political profile in June 2026, one single number sums it all up: a 33% approval rating on his handling of the economy. According to the Marist poll, this is “his lowest-ever rating on this issue”—and three points below Biden’s lowest rating. In other words: on the economy, Trump is more unpopular than Biden was at his worst. For a man who has made economic performance the core of his political identity, this is a total narrative defeat.

It’s not that Americans don’t see the efforts being made. It’s that they’re evaluating the concrete results in their daily lives. Gas prices remain high despite a recent slight drop: 78% of Americans say prices at the pump are straining their budgets, with 34% describing them as a “major burden.” Forty-five percent of Americans do not plan to take a vacation this summer—and among them, 49% cite cost as the main reason. These figures are the true verdict of the polls before the polls even open.

The Promised Disinflation Versus the Reality of Prices

Trump had made the fight against inflation his main campaign platform in 2024. “I will lower prices from day one,” he had promised. In June 2026, the Marist poll revealed that 53% of Republicans themselves say prices have impacted their summer vacation plans. Forty-nine percent of those over 60—an age group that has historically supported Trump—agreed. When summer vacations become a luxury that even the president’s supporters can no longer afford, his economic promise is judged and rejected.

The tariffs imposed by Trump have certainly generated revenue for the federal government. But they have also made imports more expensive, contributed to persistent inflationary pressures, and disrupted supply chains—with American consumers bearing the brunt of the consequences. The link between tariff policy, consumer prices, and approval ratings is not an abstraction—it is the reality for Regina Kulenga in Atlanta, Greg Votel in Minneapolis, and millions of voters who are doing the math.

On the economy, I’ll express a conviction that I’m prepared to defend: Trump’s policies may yield positive effects in the medium term—trade renegotiations, partial reindustrialization. But the short term is painful, and Americans are paying for their groceries today, not five years from now. A president who fails to manage the short term loses the people’s mandate, even if his long-term vision was sound.

The Geopolitical Message Sent to the World: What the West Needs to Understand

Trump’s Unpopularity as a Strategic Weakness for the West

A U.S. president with a 36% approval rating and facing the threat of impeachment is a weakened president on the international stage. This isn’t an opinion—it’s basic geopolitics. Xi Jinping reads the U.S. polls. So does Vladimir Putin. They know that an unpopular Trump is a Trump whose ultimatums carry less weight, whose commitments to NATO allies are challenged domestically, and whose ability to build coalitions is diminished.

The war in Iran perfectly illustrates this paradox. Trump has been firm—we can give him credit for that. Iran poses a real threat to Israel, to maritime routes, to stability in the Gulf, and by extension to the global economy. But a war waged without a solid international coalition, without the support of European allies, without a clear strategic vision—is a war that weakens the West even as it seeks to protect it.

The Zelensky Moment: What Courageous Leaders Inspire

There is a striking contrast that I cannot help but note: while U.S. polls reveal a divide over Trump, Volodymyr Zelensky continues to defend Kyiv with a determination that observers around the world respect. The difference between the two figures is not ideological. It is institutional: Zelensky defends institutions fighting for their survival. Trump weakens institutions in peacetime for short-term political gains.

The West needs both: the geopolitical firmness that Trump can sometimes embody, and the institutional integrity represented by upholding constitutional safeguards. These two requirements are not contradictory. But when a president systematically chooses institutional transgression as a tool of governance, the result is evident in the polls: 55% of Americans calling for impeachment, and a coalition that is slowly but surely falling apart.

I’ll conclude this section with a thought for our European allies, who are watching American politics with growing concern. This 55% poll result in favor of impeachment is not a victory for democracy—it is a warning. America is paying the institutional price for years of misconduct. Europe must learn from this: to build genuine strategic autonomy—not to separate from America, but to no longer depend on a single elected official who is unpopular with 55% of his own citizens.

Conclusion: The Poll That Changes the Equation

What 55% Really Means for the Future

This poll does not guarantee Trump’s impeachment. It does not guarantee a Democratic victory in the midterms. It does not signal the end of a presidency that still has enough allies in the Senate to block any removal. What it does is change the political calculations of all the players involved. It gives moderate Republicans cover to distance themselves from a president who has become an electoral liability. It gives Democrats a reason to build their campaign strategy around the midterms. It gives independent voters validation for their unease.

This poll also reflects a country that has not abandoned its democratic mechanisms. The fact that 55% of American adults answer “yes, the House should vote for impeachment” is a sign that the checks and balances are still working, that public opinion can still hold those in power accountable, and that institutions hold firm even under extreme pressure. That’s no small thing. It’s, in fact, the most important thing.

The November 2026 Horizon: Democracy in Real Time

The November 2026 midterm elections will be the real test—not a test of Trump, but of American democracy as a whole. Can a country use the ballot box to hold accountable a presidency that has amassed 55% support for impeachment, a 59% disapproval rating, and economic indicators that are weighing heavily on the most low-income households? The answer to this question will determine not only the composition of the House in January 2027, but also the message the West sends to the rest of the world about the vitality of its democratic institutions.

Trump himself has said he would be impeached if Republicans lost their majority. The 55% poll result is the first visible milestone in this self-fulfilling prophecy—or in its defeat. What happens next, as always, is up to the voters.

By Maxime Marquette, columnist