| Did Trump have classified documents? | ||
| Among registered voters | ||
| Poll dates | Had classified documents | |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | No | |
| 2/5-15/24 | 78 | 22 |
| 11/2-7/23 | 75 | 25 |
| 9/18-25/23 | 73 | 27 |
| 7/7-12/23 | 74 | 25 |
| 1/9-20/23 | 72 | 28 |
| 11/15-22/22 | 67 | 33 |
| 9/7-14/22 | 68 | 32 |
| Marquette Law School Poll, national surveys, latest: Feb. 5-15, 2024 | ||
| Question: Do you believe Donald Trump had top secret and other classified material or national security documents at his home in Mar-a-Lago in 2022? | ||
Has Trump behaved illegally or corruptly?
Marquette Law School Polls
Has Trump behaved illegally or corruptly?
With four criminal trials pending for Donald Trump how do voters perceive his actions? The Marquette Law School poll national surveys have tracked three aspects of beliefs about Trump’s actions since Sept. 2022. First is his possession of classified documents, second is whether his actions concerning the 2020 election were illegal and third if voters say he has behaved corruptly. These trends are presented below.
There has been a 10 percentage point increase in those who say Trump had classified documents, a 1 point decrease in those saying he acted illegally concerning the election, and a 3 point rise in those saying “behaved corruptly” describes him very well.
Did Trump have illegal documents at Mar a Lago?
The question we ask is
“Do you believe Donald Trump had top secret and other classified material or national security documents at his home in Mar-a-Lago in 2022?”
The trend in opinion is shown in Table 1. Since Sept. 2022 there has been a 10 percentage point increase in the percentage of registered voters who believe that Trump had top secret and other classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, an increase from over two-thirds who said he did in 2022 to over three-quarters who say he did as of February 2024.
Classified documents by party identification
Table 2 shows the trend by party in belief that Trump had classified documents. There has been a substantial increase in the percentage of Republicans saying Trump had classified documents, from 39% in Sept. 2022 to 62% in February 2024. There has been a modest, and inconsistent, growth in the percentage of independents who think Trump had classified material, from 68% in 2022 to 74% in Feb. 2024. Among Democrats 95% believe he had classified documents, the same as in 2022.
| Did Trump have classified documents by party identification? | |||
| Among registered voters | |||
| Poll dates | Party | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Independent | Democrat | |
| 2/5-15/24 | 62 | 74 | 95 |
| 11/2-7/23 | 58 | 67 | 92 |
| 9/18-25/23 | 49 | 72 | 96 |
| 7/7-12/23 | 50 | 81 | 96 |
| 1/9-20/23 | 48 | 76 | 95 |
| 11/15-22/22 | 35 | 70 | 93 |
| 9/7-14/22 | 39 | 68 | 95 |
| Marquette Law School Poll, national surveys, latest: Feb. 5-15, 2024 | |||
| Question: Do you believe Donald Trump had top secret and other classified material or national security documents at his home in Mar-a-Lago in 2022? | |||
Actions following the 2020 election
The survey asks
“As you may know, Donald Trump has been indicted by the federal government concerning his actions following the 2020 vote. In connection with those actions, do you think Trump did something illegal, he did something wrong but not illegal, or do you think he didn’t do anything wrong?”
Table 3 shows the trends in opinion about Trump’s actions. There has been little change in opinion about Trump’s actions concerning the election, with 51% saying his actions were illegal in the Feb. 2024 poll compared to 52% in Sept. 2023. There has been a small 3 percentage point increase in those who say he did nothing wrong, up to 27% from 24% in Sept.
| Did Trump behave illegally concerning the 2020 election? | |||
| Among registered voters | |||
| Poll dates | Election actions were... | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Something illegal | Something wrong but not illegal | He didn't do anything wrong | |
| 2/5-15/24 | 51 | 22 | 27 |
| 11/2-7/23 | 51 | 28 | 21 |
| 9/18-25/23 | 52 | 24 | 24 |
| Marquette Law School Poll, national surveys, latest: Feb. 5-15, 2024 | |||
| Question: As you may know, Donald Trump has been indicted by the federal government concerning his actions following the 2020 vote. In connection with those actions, do you think Trump did something illegal, he did something wrong but not illegal, or do you think he didn’t do anything wrong? | |||
Election actions illegal by party identification
Table 4 shows the opinion of Trump’s 2020 election actions by party identification. Partisans show small changes if any. Among Republican’s 11% say his actions were illegal compared to 16% in Nov. and 13% in Sept. Among independents 52% say he acted illegally, compared to 42% in Nov. and 50% in Sept. Among Democrats there has been a slight increase, from 89% in Sept. to 91% in Feb.
| Did Trump behave illegally concerning the 2020 election, by party identification? | |||
| Among registered voters | |||
| Poll dates | Party | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Independent | Democrat | |
| 2/5-15/24 | 11 | 52 | 91 |
| 11/2-7/23 | 16 | 42 | 87 |
| 9/18-25/23 | 13 | 50 | 89 |
| Marquette Law School Poll, national surveys, latest: Feb. 5-15, 2024 | |||
| Question: As you may know, Donald Trump has been indicted by the federal government concerning his actions following the 2020 vote. In connection with those actions, do you think Trump did something illegal, he did something wrong but not illegal, or do you think he didn’t do anything wrong? | |||
Has Trump behhaved corruptly?
We ask:
How well does each of the following phrases describe Donald Trump? Has behaved corruptly
Table 5 shows the trend in perception that “has behaved corruptly” describes Trump. There has been a slight increase in the percentage saying “has behaved corruptly” describes Trump very well, from 44% in Sept. to 47% in Feb.
| How well does ‘has behaved corruptly’ describe Trump? | ||||
| Among registered voters | ||||
| Poll dates | Has behaved corruptly describes Trump | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Very well | Somewhat well | Not too well | Not at all well | |
| 2/5-15/24 | 47 | 15 | 19 | 19 |
| 11/2-7/23 | 45 | 17 | 20 | 18 |
| 9/18-25/23 | 44 | 17 | 18 | 20 |
| Marquette Law School Poll, national surveys, latest: Feb. 5-15, 2024 | ||||
| Question: How well does each of the following phrases describe Donald Trump? Has behaved corruptly | ||||
Behaved corruptly by party identification
Table 6 shows the trend those saying ‘has behaved corruptly’ describes Trump very well by party identification. Republicans and Democrats alike show a small 3 percentage point increase in saying Trump has behaved corruptly, comparing Feb. to Sept, while independents show a 10 percentage point increase over that time.
| How well does ‘has behaved corruptly’ describe Trump, by party identification? | |||
| Among registered voters | |||
| Poll dates | Party | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Independent | Democrat | |
| 2/5-15/24 | 16 | 42 | 79 |
| 11/2-7/23 | 15 | 31 | 78 |
| 9/18-25/23 | 13 | 32 | 76 |
| Marquette Law School Poll, national surveys, latest: Feb. 5-15, 2024 | |||
| Question: How well does each of the following phrases describe Donald Trump? Has behaved corruptly | |||
About the Marquette Law School Poll
This report tracks views of whether Donald Trump has behaved illegally or corruptly in Marquette Law School national polls since Sept. 2022. The data are for registered voters nationally in Marquette Law School Polls.
The latest survey was conducted Feb. 5-15, 2024, interviewing 882 registered voters nationwide, with a margin of error of +/-4.5 percentage points. Full results, including toplines, crosstabs, survey instrument and methodology report, are available at the MULawPoll website