16 Percent of Republicans Worry About Trump's Extremist Ties

55 percent of Americans polled by Gallup in October 2024 said they're either very or somewhat concerned that ex-President Donald Trump is aligned too closely with radicals, with 49 percent of survey participants saying the same of Vice President Kamala Harris. Zooming in on the party identification of the people polled reveals that even in his own camp, 16 percent of respondents identifying as Republicans think that Trump aligns himself too strongly with people holding radical views, while only six percent of Democrats say the same about Harris.

Results from independent voters also show that around half of those not identifying with either the Republican or the Democratic Party think that Kamala Harris' ties to people perceived as radical are concerning. Trump's connections to people holding extremist views are seen as worrying by 61 percent of independents.

While Donald Trump's platform is mostly indistinguishable from his 2016 presidential campaign, doubling down on putting the economic needs of the U.S. first by planning to impose tariffs between 10 and 60 percent on foreign goods, Kamala Harris has recently moved away from more liberal viewpoints which might have connected her to the political left in the eyes of some of the respondents to the Gallup poll. As AP reports, Harris will most likely not ban fracking and will also more rigidly enforce existing border policy, decisions that in part counter the Biden-Harris platform of 2020.

Compared to 2020, the opinion of Americans surveyed by Gallup hasn't really changed. Four years ago, 47 percent thought that Joe Biden was too closely aligned with radicals, while 54 percent thought the same of Donald Trump. This is an indicator that opinions on either candidate are likely to be based on personal preference instead of facts, with Harris moving away from key policies concerning climate change and immigration defined by the Biden administration and still being seen as tied closely to extremist individuals by half of the people polled by Gallup.