Donald Trump’s thoughts about Adolf Hitler have become a topic of debate after his former White House Chief of Staff, John Kelly, said that Trump said Hitler “did some good things.” We polled Americans’ attitudes about Hitler, how they think Trump and Kamala Harris view Hitler, and whether they would be willing to vote for a candidate who said Hitler did good things.
More than half of Americans believe that Trump harbors some positive feelings for Hitler or his actions: 39% say Trump thinks of Hitler as either a completely good person, a good person who did some bad things, or an equally good and bad person, and 15% think Trump views Hitler as a bad person who did some good things. Just 20% of Americans believe that Trump views Hitler as a completely bad person.
Republicans are much more likely than Democrats or Independents to think that Trump views Hitler as a completely bad person. While only 10% of Democrats and 13% of Independents think Trump sees Hitler as completely bad, 38% of Republicans express this view. However, this is still smaller than the share of Republicans who say that Trump thinks Hitler did good things or was a good person (41%). Larger shares of Independents (49%) and Democrats (72%) say the same.
In contrast, few Americans believe Harris has any positive feelings about Hitler. Half of Americans say that Harris views Hitler as a completely bad person, while only 20% say that Harris sees Hitler as either a completely good person, a good person who did some bad things, an equally good and bad person, or a bad person who did some good things. Democrats are most likely to say Harris thinks of Hitler as completely bad (63%) while Republicans are least likely (36%). However, even Republicans are more likely to say that Harris thinks of Hitler as completely bad than they are to say that Harris thinks Hitler was good, equally good and bad, or did some good things (36% vs. 31%).
Americans’ perceptions of Harris’ opinions are closer to their own than are their perceptions of Trump’s. Most Americans (65%) think of Hitler as a completely bad person, while just 23% say he either was a completely good person, a good person who did some bad things, an equally good and bad person, or a bad person who did some good things. A majority of Americans view Hitler completely negatively regardless of partisanship: 75% of Democrats, 59% of Independents, and 60% of Republicans say that Hitler was a completely bad person. Republicans are, however, a bit more likely to see some good in Hitler: about one-third of Republicans think Hitler either was a good person, an equally good and bad person, or a bad person who did some good things.
American opinion toward Hitler is more negative today than it was the end of World War II, soon after his death. Today, only 11% of Americans say any of his ideas were right and 65% say none were. Gallup asked the same question in 1947 and found that 25% of Americans said any of Hitler's ideas were right while 66% said none were.
Just one-quarter of Americans say they would vote for someone who said that Hitler did some good things, even if they otherwise supported that candidate. In contrast, 54% of Americans say they would not vote for a candidate who said Hitler did good things, including 32% who say they would vote for the candidate’s opponent in response. Only 12% of Democrats, 20% of Independents, and 41% of Republicans say they would be willing to vote for a candidate who said Hitler did some good things.
— Taylor Orth and Carl Bialik contributed to this article
See the results for this YouGov poll
Methodology: This YouGov poll was conducted online on November 1, 2024, among 1,077 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of adult U.S. citizens. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given prior to November 1, 2022, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (33% Democratic, 31% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 4%.
Image: Getty
