Poll shows more Americans are beginning to support impeaching Trump

Donald Trump in a black suit, a white shirt, and a blue tie speaking into a microphone
Impact

A Politico/Morning Consult poll released Wednesday revealed 43% of voters want to see President Donald Trump impeached, an increase from the 38% of respondents who favored impeachment the previous week. The percentange of respondents who don't want to see Trump impeached dropped slightly from 46% to 45%.

Of the 43% who support impeachment, more than half believe Trump has proven himself "unfit to serve and should be removed from office, regardless of whether he committed an impeachable offense or not."

Opinions on impeachment mostly fall along partisan lines. Politico reported that 71% of self-identified Democrats want to see the president impeached, while 76% of Republican voters do not.

Meanwhile, the daily Gallup job-approval poll found that only 41% of Americans approve of the job the president is doing, while 53% disapprove.

These numbers come amid mounting scrutiny over the Trump campaign's possible ties to Russia, specifically revelations that Jared Kushner is under investigation after trying to set up a a secure line of communication between the president's transition team and the Kremlin.

Trump also courted controversy on his recent overseas trip, during which he refused to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to the Paris climate accord at the G7 summit and appeared to shove the prime minister of Montenegro during a NATO photo shoot.

Susan Walsh/AP

The U.S. has never removed a president through impeachment.

If Trump were to be impeached and removed from office, he would be the first president in U.S. history to be removed through the impeachment process, which is exceedingly rare and doesn't always guarantee removal from office. Only presidents Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 have been impeached, and both were acquitted by the Senate and remained in office.

President Richard Nixon resigned from the presidency in 1972, avoiding impeachment hearings surrounding the Watergate scandal that would have almost certainly led to his removal from office.

The Economist Intelligence Unit, a research arm of the Economist that assesses market risks, recently upgraded the chance of Trump being impeached from low to moderate.