Deep state? Most pro-Harris government managers plan to resist Trump's efforts, poll finds

The vast majority of federal government managers who supported Kamala Harris as the Democrat presidential nominee plan to resist Donald Trump's second presidency, according to a new poll released Monday.

The survey by Scott Rasmussen’s Napolitan Institute and RMG Research found significant contrasts between Main Street American voters, elite voters and voters who are federal workers.

The poll found that despite a greater percentage of elites than federal government managers voting for Harris, elite voters are more likely to support Trump than federal managers.

The survey broke down voters into three categories: federal government managers, Elite 1%, and Main Street Americans.

Federal government managers are defined as federal employees living in the D.C. area with a salary of at least $75,000 a year.

The “Elite 1%” are people who live in areas populated with at least 10,000 people per square mile in their zip codes, have postgraduate degrees, and make more than $150,000 a year. They represent about 1% of the U.S. population.

Main Street Americans have none of the characteristics of the Elite 1%.

According to the poll, the amount of federal government managers who voted for Trump is 45%, compared to 52% for Harris, and just 44% said they will support his administration, with 42% who said they will resist.

A total of 80% of federal government managers who voted for Harris said they will resist the efforts of the Trump administration. Only 1% of them said they will somewhat support him.

Meanwhile, 34% of the elite 1% voted for Trump, compared to 64% for Harris, and 48% said they will support the new president, while 39% said they will resist.

In contrast, 50% of all voters cast their ballots for Trump, and 56% of voters intend to support him, with just 29% who said they would resist him.

More elite 1% voters are willing to support Trump than federal government managers, despite more elites voting for Harris than federal government managers did.

“We talk about politics, and government by consent of the governed, but the narrative is dominated by the elites," Rasmussen said during a Napolitan Institute webinar on Thursday. "So the more that President Trump can begin to either neutralize or win over some of these elites, there’s a real chance to change the narrative.” 

He also said that he believes the support of Trump by the elite 1% is “tepid and also as reflecting, ‘let’s see how things go.’”

Also, 89% of Republican federal government managers said they will support Trump, while 73% of Democratic managers said they will resist.

“Given that there are similar numbers of Republicans and Democrats in the ranks of Federal Government Managers, this partisan divide may well foreshadow a turbulent time of conflict within the government itself,” according to the report.

Only 17% of Democratic federal government managers who voted for Harris said they will follow an order from Trump, while 64% said they would ignore and do what they thought was best.

Rasmussen argued that directly working with the resistance of federal government managers “is a losing effort,” and a “fight that will need to be carried out with Republican officials, learning how to be successful in countering some of those Democratic efforts.”

“But the biggest way to address those problems with the federal government managers who are going to be resisting is to succeed,” he also said.

“If the economy is getting better, and if the border is getting secure, voters will rally around the Trump administration in a significant way,” he added. “If that happens and there’s a lot of outreach to this elite world, ways to begin to shift the narrative, that will have an impact on the federal government managers.”

A total of 54% of Main Street American voters believe a government leader should be fired for refusing to follow the president's legal order.

However, 74% of Republican federal government managers believe a person should be fired for refusing to follow a president’s order, compared to just 23% of Democratic managers who agree.

Voters were also asked an open-ended question about their top issues. The economy was the top issue for 40% of Main Street American voters, compared to 18% for federal government managers and 26% for the elite 1%.

Top issues for federal government managers included guns and crime (10%), climate change (6%), education (5%), equality (5%), and cybersecurity (5%), which were not mentioned by even 1% of any other voter category.

The RMG Research survey was conducted in December of 1,000 registered voters, 1,000 elite 1% voters, and 500 federal government managers.

The margin of error for both the full sample of voters and the Elite 1% voters is +/- 3.1 percentage points, while the margin of error is +/- 4.4 percentage points for federal government managers.