More than half of registered voters — including 28% of Democrats — said President Donald Trump's actions in Washington, D.C., to tackle crime were "justified and necessary," according to a new Harvard Center for American Political Studies (CAPS)-Harris poll released Monday.
Overall, 54% said Trump's moves to federalize D.C.'s police force and deploy the National Guard were necessary to increase safety in the capital, including 47% of independents.
Further, 51% said the moves would make Washington safer, including 28% of Democrats.
As for the individual moves, 54% said they supported Trump's decision to declare a crime emergency in D.C.; 54% approved of his order to deploy National Guard troops; 50% approved of federalizing the police force; and 47% said they approved of Trump using presidential authority to take over local police, according to the survey.
"It's clear Trump is moving from immigration to crime as a major focus and his efforts are receiving strong Republican and independent support," said Mark Penn, co-director of the Harvard CAPS-Harris poll.
Notably, 55% said crime in D.C. is at the same level as in other parts of the country, with only 20% calling it exceptional and much worse, the survey said.
Further, 56% said typical large cities are unsafe, especially New York City (63%) and Los Angeles (62%). As such, 73% said they expect Trump to take similar actions in other cities in the future, the poll said.
The Harvard CAPS/Harris poll surveyed 2,025 registered voters from Aug. 20-21. The margin of error for the total sample is +/- 2.2 percentage points with a 95% confidence level.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.