In recent polling conducted by YouGov in association with CBS News, nearly all respondents in a pool of registered voters backed the U.S. Constitution over Donald Trump when such a question was presented.
While prioritizing the Constitution is a given clearly for the overwhelming majority, it’s more of an open question with Trump. At one point, he seemingly argued for potentially setting Constitutional provisions aside in service of undoing imaginary election fraud in the 2020 presidential race, though he tried to basically go back on what he said publicly and online.
“If Donald Trump wins the presidency in 2024, which would you most prefer government officials, including military personnel and law enforcement, show…,” respondents were asked. Ninety-four percent of registered voters selected loyalty to the federal Constitution, while just six percent said loyalty to Trump.
Besides his comments on trying to get back in office, Trump has also talked repeatedly and consistently about prioritizing the advancement of his own interests among staff members in the federal government, though there are large portions of its workforce comprised of career figures who serve under successive presidencies, accumulating experience independent of partisan and electoral politics. Firings arguably tied to politics were common when Trump was president, starting with figures like James Comey, who led the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and continuing with a series of oversight officials known as inspectors general, who generally oversee individual federal departments at a time.
And Trump has also spoken of potentially going after political opponents with the machinations of the criminal justice process — which in its implementation would also likely violate basic legal guardrails originating with the Constitution.
On the flip side, Trump has suggested extreme action against figures even in the military who’ve contradicted him. Trump previously argued that Mark Milley, a retired general who until semi-recently was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would have been executed in earlier times. Yet, Republicans stick with him.
