Trump trusted more than the GOP election results: USAFacts/AP-NORC poll

CHICAGO (AP) — For Christopher Pugh, the 2020 election was a turning point.

He already distrusted the government. But when he saw Fox News Reporting immediately after the election and posts on Twitter, the social media platform now known as X, read that distrust was growing. He now believes that the lie that the 2020 election was rigged and trusts few people other than former President Donald Trump to deliver news of the election results to him.

“I trust Donald Trump, not the government,” said the 38-year-old Republican from Gulfport, Mississippi. “That's all.”

While most Americans have at least a “moderate” level of trust in the government-certified election results, Republicans are more inclined to trust Trump and his campaign team, according to a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research And USAFacts. Americans are also heading into November's election with concerns about misinformation. Many have little confidence that the information they receive from presidential candidates – especially Trump, but also Vice President Kamala Harris – is based on facts.

Trump continues to lie about the outcome of the 2020 electionsand said that the trial against him had been rigged, even after Dozens of his lawsuits failed, Reviews, told And Examinations In Swing States – contested states all confirmed the victory of President Joe Biden and Trump’s own Attorney General said there was no evidence of widespread fraud. no evidence of widespread fraud, A survey from 2023 found that most Republicans believe Biden was not legitimately elected president.

Trump, who is running for the third time as a Republican candidate, is also signaling that he can only lose through widespread electoral fraud. At the weekend, he threatened with prosecution who were “involved in unscrupulous behavior” in this election should he win in November.

“The only way they can beat us is by cheating,” Trump said at a rally in Las Vegas in June.

The latest results from the AP-NORC poll show that a significant portion of Trump's supporters may be more inclined to believe his statements about the upcoming election results than to trust the government. Certification of election results.

About two-thirds of Republicans have at least moderate confidence in the Trump campaign to provide accurate information about the results of the 2024 election, while only about half say that about the official certifications of the results, the poll found. In contrast, about 9 in 10 Democrats have at least moderate confidence in state certifications, and an overwhelming majority, 82%, also have at least moderate confidence in Harris and her campaign.

Most Americans – about 7 in 10 – trust government certifications of election results at least to some extent, according to the poll. The majority also trust national and local television news channels and local or national newspapers to provide accurate information about the outcome of this year's presidential election.

Danielle Almeida, a 45-year-old Democrat from Briarcliff Manor, New York, said she trusts the government-certified election results and finds it troubling that some Americans do not.

“To have a democracy, we have to trust the system and the results of our elections,” she said, adding that she believes Trump “doesn't care about checking the facts because he thinks his supporters don't care either.”

Compared to sources like the government and the media, Americans trust campaigns less overall, but they have higher levels of trust in Harris and her campaign than in Trump and his campaign to provide accurate information about the outcome of the election. About half of respondents have at least a “moderate” level of trust in Harris and her campaign. In contrast, about 4 in 10 respondents have at least a moderate level of trust in Trump and his campaign.

Some Republicans' distrust of the election results began long before the 2020 election.

Richard Baum, 60, a conservative independent from Odessa, Texas, said his suspicions began in the 2000 U.S. presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. After Bush won by a narrow margin, “hanging punch cards” became an unlikely symbol a controversial presidential election as small anomalies The usual electoral incidents escalated into major national controversies.

“There were some things that didn't seem right and that made me have serious doubts about whether the government could be trusted,” Baum said.

Baum said he could only trust the election results if voting was held on a single day, early voting and mail-in voting were banned, and photo ID was required at all polling places.

Many Americans doubt the credibility of the campaign messages of both presidential candidates. But skepticism is even greater towards Trump's campaign, according to the USAFacts/AP-NORC poll.

About six in 10 Americans believe that Trump's campaign messages are “rarely” or “never” based on facts. By comparison, 45 percent say this about Harris' campaign messages.

Many Americans also say it's difficult to distinguish fact from fiction when it comes to the candidates. Just under half of Americans say it's “very easy” or “fairly easy” to find factual information about the candidates and their positions, and only about a third say it's easy to figure out whether what the candidates are saying is true or not.

About six in 10 Americans say they find it easy to distinguish between facts and opinions when receiving information about the upcoming presidential election. But only about four in 10 say they find it easy to tell whether information is true or not.

However, Americans rely more heavily on factual information about voting logistics: About 7 in 10 Americans say it is easy to find information about voter registration, and about 6 in 10 say it is easy to find information about voting.

Michele Martin, a 56-year-old Democrat from Pennsylvania, said she was “very concerned” about disinformation from politicians but found it much easier to get basic voter information.

“It's online. It's mailed to you. It's not hard to find,” she said.

About 8 in 10 Americans say the spread of misinformation is a “big problem” when it comes to getting information about the government, essentially unchanged since the question was asked in 2020.

Lisa Kuda, a 57-year-old Republican from Palm Harbor, Florida, said she gets most of her news from social media and friends. She said she feels alienated from most news sources except Fox News.

“Misinformation is everywhere,” she said. “It's really difficult to find information about candidates.”

When Americans see news about the election and want to find out if it is true, they say they look online first, 40 percent. A much smaller share – about 1 in 10 – say they look on cable TV, national television or social media first.

Baum, of Texas, said he has difficulty easily accessing information about candidates because he believes social media platforms “censor conservative ideologies.” He also doesn't trust Google, turning instead to conservative networks and podcasts like One America News and conservative podcasters to fact-check claims he's unsure about.

Almeida's approach is quite different. She starts with a Google search and combs through several articles from news outlets like the New York Times and NBC News, noting any differences. If multiple articles contain the same information, she's more likely to trust them, she says.

“Misinformation is a huge problem,” she said. “You have to take the time to do research.”

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Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report. Sanders reported from Washington.

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The survey of 1,019 adults was conducted from July 29 to August 8, 2024. The sample came from NORC's probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.

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