Poll reveals how worried New Zealanders are about prospect of a second Donald Trump Presidency in US elections

Key facts:

• The United States election is on November 5
• Donald Trump accepted the Republican’s presidential nomination a week ago, soon after an assassination attempt.
• US President Joe Biden has stood down as the Democrat’s nominee and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris

A survey taken before the assassination attempt on US presidential candidate Donald Trump shows about 75% of Kiwis are concerned about the prospect of a second Trump presidency.

Half are either extremely concerned or very concerned.

In Talbot Mills Research’s (TMR) monthly survey, 39% said they were extremely concerned about Trump winning the US Presidential election in November, 14% were very concerned and 12% said moderately concerned.

A further 9% were slightly concerned, while only 21% were not concerned about it.

The issue was polled in TMR’s monthly online survey of 1151 respondents, taken from June 1 to June 10 – before Trump was fired atduring a rally in Milwaukee on July 13.

Since then, he has been confirmed as the Republicans’ presidential candidate while US President Joe Biden has withdrawn as the Democratic candidate.

That followed weeks of pressure following a faltering performance in the first debate against Trump and he has now endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris as the presidential nominee.

Other TMR polling questions showed levels of concern among New Zealanders about increasing anger and political division.

Asked how concerned they were about “increasing angry divisions between people with different political views no longer talking to each other,” 49 per cent were either extremely concerned or very concerned. Only 8% were not concerned at all.

After Trump’s shooting, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon – along with other political leaders – expressed his shock at what had happened.

“No country should encounter such political violence.”

Luxon has repeatedly refrained from airing a view on whether a second Trump presidency would be good or bad for New Zealand.

While in Washington recently, he spent time on Capitol Hill meeting with both influential Republicans and Democrats. They included Republican Ted Cruz and Democrats Jon Ossoff and California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has long been tipped as a potential presidential candidate but has endorsed Harris.

Speaking to the NZ Herald ahead of his visit to Washington, Luxon would not say if he was worried about what Trump might mean for trade or the Indo-Pacific region.

“My job will be to work with whoever the American people deliver as their President”.

One of Trump’s policy moves this time round has been to propose a 10% tariff on goods imported into the US.

When Trump was last elected in 2017, one of his first moves was to withdraw the US from the then Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Claire Trevett is the NZ Herald’s political editor. She started at the NZ Herald in 2003 and joined the Parliamentary Press Gallery team in 2007.