Backers of the former president believe they’d be “better off” if GOP-led states split from the US, a Yahoo/YouGov survey has shown
Many residents of Republican-controlled states who voted for then-President Donald Trump in 2020 believe they would be “better off” if their state seceded from the US, a new poll has revealed.
About 33% of Trump voters in so-called red states say they’d personally fare better if their state “became an independent country,” according to a Yahoo/YouGov poll released on Friday. That compared with 29% who believe they’d be “worse off” after secession. The remaining 38% are either unsure or see themselves faring “about the same” in a newly independent state.
The margin was similar when Americans were asked how their state as a whole would fare after secession, with 35% of Trump voters speculating that it would be better off versus 30% saying that it would be worse off.
The poll marks the latest illustration of increasing political polarization and cultural division in American life. Half of Americans believe there will be another US civil war in their lifetime and that the country will cease to be a democracy at some point, an earlier Yahoo/YouGov poll showed in June.
The divide grew even deeper with last month’s US Supreme Court ruling that abortion isn’t a protected constitutional right, leaving the hotly contested issue for state lawmakers to decide. About half of states have either banned abortion already or are expected to place new restrictions on the procedure within the next several weeks.
About 92% of red-state Trump voters trust their state government more than the federal government to do “what’s best,” the latest poll found. Eight in 10 blue-state residents who voted for President Joe Biden in 2020 trust their state government more than Washington.
Just 15% of overall respondents believe the US is “generally headed in the right direction,” compared with 72% who say it’s “off on the wrong track,” the poll showed. Only 27% trust that Biden is “up to the challenges facing the US,” versus 56% who say he isn’t.
Americans also have a grim outlook of the future, with 46% saying the next generation will be “worse off” and only 25% saying it will be “better off.” Similarly, 37% of voters believe America’s best days are “behind us,” compared with 31% who say those days are “still to come.”
Neither Trump nor Biden is viewed as the solution. Only 28% of respondents say Trump should run for president again in 2024, while 18% say Biden should seek re-election.
Following two years of virtual meetings due to COVID-19, the 2022 High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) closed on Friday at UN Headquarters in New York with delegates showing “enthusiasm, passion and high-energy” for reaching the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as Sri Lanka’s interim president until Parliament elects a successor to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who resigned after mass protests forced him from office.
The diplomatic mission has advised US citizens, who are still in the country, to avoid “large gatherings and organized events”
Citing a “highly volatile” security situation, the US embassy in Kiev has urged Americans not to visit Ukraine, and those already there to leave immediately.
In a security alert published on Thursday on the embassy’s website, US citizens who are still in Ukraine have been strongly advised against attending large public gatherings.
It emphasized that the “security situation throughout Ukraine continues to be violent and unpredictable,” claiming that “large gatherings and organized events” may “serve as Russian military targets” anywhere in the country.
The alert warned that US citizens in Ukraine should not “rely on US government assistance” but instead act according to their own “contingency plan,” which has to be developed in advance.
Commenting on the US embassy’s alert on Telegram on Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote that the diplomats omitted to mention “that Washington is supplying the Kiev regime with US weapons which is provoking the continuation of the conflict and people’s deaths.”
The US warning was published hours after a deadly explosion hit the city of Vinnitsa in central Ukraine on Thursday. According to Kiev, the attack claimed the lives of 22 civilians, including three children, and injured scores more.
The Russian military, in a statement issued on Friday, confirmed launching a missile attack at a target in Vinnitsa, but denied it was a deliberate strike against civilians. The Defense Ministry said it had attacked Ukrainian senior military commanders while they were negotiating with foreign arms suppliers at the local House of Officers building.
All participants are said to have been killed as a result of the strike. According to the ministry, the discussions centered on the “transfer of more warplanes and weapons systems, as well as the repair of the Ukrainian military air fleet.”
Both Kiev and Moscow have repeatedly accused each other of hitting civilian targets, while insisting that their respective forces are only striking military objects, hardware and personnel.
Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”
In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.
