Dem-voting federal bureaucrats confirm they would defy legal presidential orders, poll shows
A new poll found that a majority of federal employees who previously voted Democrat are geared up to act against the interest of their elected boss, President Donald Trump.
The data, released Thursday by the Napolitan Institute, shows that 76% of voters for former Vice President Kamala Harris working under Trump say they will “resist” his plans, while 75% say they would hypothetically disobey, or “do what [they] thought was best,” when given a legal order that they disagreed with. The Napolitan Institute said the numbers show a “deep partisan divide in the Administrative State” as Trump moves to bring the numerous halls of government in alignment with his agenda.
“Our research confirms that the Administrative State is not composed of thoughtful, nonpartisan experts who are making neutral decisions for voters,” Napolitan Institute founder Scott Rasmussen said in a press release. “The deep partisan divide within the federal bureaucracy and the shifting public opinion present significant challenges for the current administration.”
The survey asked respondents to “imagine that you were the head of a federal government agency” and “President Trump gave you an order that was legal but you believed was bad policy.”
“Would you follow the president’s order or do what you thought was best?” The questionnaire asked.
The results showed that 75% of bureaucrats who voted for Harris for president would “do what [they] thought was best,” in regards to Trump’s orders, while 9% were unsure and the rest would obey him. This contrasted with 80% of Trump-voting officials who said they would follow the president despite their disagreements, with 2% saying they were unsure and 18% saying they would not.
Harris supporters in the government also said their own “political efforts” will be to either “strongly resist” or “somewhat resist” Trump’s agenda by 56% and 16% said they would “neither support nor resist,” the Napolitan Institute found.
The group surveyed 500 officials “living in the National Capitol Region and earning at least $75,000 annually,” noting a margin of error of 4 percent.
Trump’s efforts to bring the bureaucracy to heel included a day-one hiring freeze “throughout the executive branch,” payouts for federal workers, funding cuts for left-wing priorities like transgender ideology as well as the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has cleaned house at several agencies.
“The silver lining is that with such high levels of chaos in this bureaucratic ‘civil war’, there may be an opening for the common sense voice of the American people to rise above the political noise and once again become the shaping force of the nation’s dialogue,” said Rasmussen.
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