Exactly half of Americans who describe themselves as “very liberal” say a business executive who donates his or her own money to President Trump’s re-election campaign should be fired, according to a new survey.
The CATO/YouGov poll asked all Americans if business executives who donate private money to Trump should be canned. Liberals were the most likely to say “yes.”
Although 43 percent of liberals said a business executive who donated to Trump should be fired, the number jumped to 50 percent among Americans who self-label as “very liberal.”
Around a third of moderates (32 percent) said an executive should be fired for donating to Trump. Among all Americans, 31 percent backed such an action.
Among age groups, adults under 30 were most likely (44 percent) to say an executive should be fired.
“These results are particularly notable given that most personal campaign contributions to political candidates are public knowledge and can easily be found online,” Cato’s Emily Ekins wrote in an analysis.
Elizabeth Nolan Brown of Reason.com called it a “disturbingly high percentage” of people who support a loss of job for political donations.
Meanwhile, support for firing business executives over donations to Democrat Joe Biden was not as high, with 22 percent of all Americans – nine percentage points less than that of Trump – saying a business executive who donates private money to the presumptive Democratic nominee should be fired.
About one in five (22 percent) conservative Americans and more than one-third (36 percent) of very conservative Americans said such a person who donates to Biden should be fired. Among moderates, it was 24 percent.
This meshing of politics and work applies to the individual, too: Nearly a third (32 percent) of employed Americans say they “personally are worried about missing out on career opportunities or losing their job if their political opinions became known,” according to the Cato analysis. This includes 31 percent of liberals, 30 percent of moderates and 34 percent of conservatives who “are worried their political views could get them fired or harm their career trajectory,” Cato said.
The survey of 2,000 Americans was conducted July 1-6.
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Gangrytsku
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
