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69% of Democrats Say Trump A Bigger Threat Than North Korea’s ‘Rocket Man’

Voters think President Trump is as big a threat to the United States as the North Korean dictator who is promising to attack us with nuclear weapons.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 46% of Likely U.S. Voters believe Trump is a bigger danger to America than Kim Jong-Un. Just as many (45%) say the North Korean communist leader is a bigger danger. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Sixty-nine percent (69%) of Democrats and unaffiliated voters by a 47% to 41% margin rate the president as the bigger danger. Seventy-four percent (74%) of Republicans think the North Korean poses the bigger threat.

Trump last week in his first major speech before the United Nations labeled Kim Jong-Un “Rocket Man” for his country’s continuing threats of nuclear attack on the United States and urged the international community to take action. The UN has upped its economic sanctions against North Korea to include those countries that trade with it.

In early July, 45% of voters said the United States should use military force to stop North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Rasmussen Reports will update those findings tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. Eastern.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on September 24-25, 2017 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Just prior to Trump’s inauguration in January, 50% of voters said the United States was a more divided nation after eight years under President Obama. But 59% said in June that the country is more divided after the first few months of the Trump presidency.

Men and women are closely divided over which leader is a bigger danger to the United States. Middle-aged voters see Trump as the bigger threat; seniors are much more worried about the North Korean.

Whites see Kim Jong-Un as the bigger danger. Blacks and other minority voters are much more likely to view Trump that way.

Ninety-six percent (96%) of voters who Strongly Approve of the job the president is doing rate the North Korean leader as the bigger threat to America. Among voters who Strongly Disapprove of Trump’s job performance, 87% say he is the bigger danger.

Seventy-five percent (75%) of all voters agree that North Korea is a vital national security interest for the United States these days. Sixty-three percent (63%) said last month that they believe the United States is likely to take military action against North Korea in the next six months, with 28% who said it is Very Likely. 

Seventy-five percent (75%) said in June that the United Nations and the international community should do more – up to and including military action – to prevent North Korea’s further development of nuclear weapons.

Just 33% think the country is headed in the right direction, although that's up from 28% last year at this time during the closing months of the Obama presidency.

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on September 24-25, 2017 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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