Data: YouGov; Chart: Axios Visuals
Three out of four Americans — including 60% of Republicans — say the Trump administration’s use of a Signal group chat to discuss military strikes is a serious problem, according to the first poll out on the national security breach.
Why it matters: The White House’s efforts to downplay the explosive report from The Atlantic have so far failed to quell the controversy, even as White House officials initially said they believed it would die down.
- President Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Intelligence Chief Tulsi Gabbard have all denied that classified materials were shared in the chat that inadvertently included The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg.
Driving the news: 74% of Americans say the group chat that discussed U.S. strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen was a very (53%) or somewhat (21%) serious problem, according to the YouGov online survey of 5,976 U.S. adults conducted this week.
- Over a quarter (28%) of Republicans polled said it was a “very serious” problem.
- Just 13% of Americans say the situation was not very serious or not at all serious.
One stunning stat: A higher share of adults polled said they thought Signalgate was a serious problem than said the same about then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server in past polls.
- YouGov most recently asked about Clinton’s emails in a September 2022 poll. At the time, about three out of five (62%) of Americans viewed the controversy as a very or somewhat serious problem.
- In 2015, the first time YouGov asked Americans about the email debacle, 56% of Americans viewed her use of a personal email server to conduct government business as a very or somewhat serious problem.
Flashback: September 2022 YouGov polling showed that 42% of U.S. adult citizens found Trump’s handling of classified documents after his first term to be a “very serious” problem.
Methodology: The Daily Questions survey of 5,976 U.S. adults was conducted online on March 25. The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 2%.
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