Poll shows a divided states of America with Trump's MAGA seen as threat

Days after Democratic President Joe Biden gave a fiery speech attacking former president Donald Trump and his Republican allies as an extremist threat, a Reuters/Ipsos poll has found a majority of Americans believe Trump's movement is undermining democracy.

Fifty-eight percent of respondents in the two-day poll completed on Wednesday — including one in four Republicans — said Trump's "Make America Great Again" movement is threatening America's democratic foundations.

Biden's September 1 speech marked a sharp turn for his efforts to boost Democrats in the November 8 midterm elections, when Republicans aim to win control of the US Congress.

Speaking in Pennsylvania, a key electoral battleground, Biden urged voters to reject Trump and extremism. Republican leaders, including House of Representatives minority leader Kevin McCarthy, responded by calling Biden divisive.

The poll highlights the sharply polarised state of US politics.

Fifty-nine percent of respondents said Biden's speech will further divide the country, though just about half of respondents said they didn't watch or follow the speech at all.

MAGA not representative of GOP

While Trump remains popular among Republicans, his standing within the party has suffered since a mob of his supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a bid to stop lawmakers from certifying Biden's election victory.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 60 percent of Republicans don't think Trump's MAGA movement represents the majority of the party.

Biden's own approval ratings remain low, despite a string of recent legislative achievements. Just 39 percent percent of respondents said they approve of Biden's job performance as president, a level not far above the lowest levels Trump had during his presidency.

The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, conducted online in English throughout the United States, gathered responses from 1,003 adults, including 411 Democrats and 397 Republicans. It has a credibility interval — a measure of precision — of four percentage points.