The vast majority of federal employees who voted for the former Vice President Kamala Harris are willing to disobey Trump’s lawful orders, a new poll has found. The finding comes as Democrats nationwide continue to make calls for resistance, which seems to reverberate across the federal service.
The poll by the Napolitan Institute found that just over three-quarters, or 76%, of Democrat-voting federal employees who voted for Harris said they will “resist” the Trump administration for the next four years – seemingly for no reason except perhaps their political beliefs.
The poll asked, “Looking ahead to the next four years, will your political efforts be primarily to support the Trump administration or resist the Trump administration?”
Among Kamala-voting federal bureaucrats, 41% said they will “strongly resist,” while 35% said they will “somehow resist,” bringing the total number to 76%.
Similarly, when tasked with the responsibility of implementing a federal policy they disagreed with, a whopping 75% of Kamala-voting federal bureaucrats said they would disobey lawful orders and “do what they thought was best.”
That survey question asked, “Suppose that President Trump gave you an order that was legal, but you believed was bad policy. Would you follow the president’s order or do what you thought was best?”
In contrast, 80% of Republican-voting bureaucrats said they would obey, while 18% said they would disobey and do what they believed was best.
Additionally, the number of Kamala-voting federal bureaucrats who said they would resist Trump’s lawful orders increased since the transition period in December 2024, when only 69% said they would disobey.
“In December, during the presidential transition, just 17% of Harris-voting Managers said they would follow a legal order from the president. At that time, 69% planned to ignore it.”
However, the researchers noted that resistance by federal employees was common regardless of the administration in power.
“It is worth noting that the partisan response to the president’s agenda would be similar, but reversed, with a Democrat in the White House,” the researchers stated.
Nonetheless, Trump has always encountered strong resistance from the sprawling bureaucracy, which he intends to tame. During his first term in office, he encountered strong resistance even from Republican-voting bureaucrats.
“We do not have comparable survey data from the president’s first term. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that resistance to the president at that time came from both Republican and Democratic Managers.”
The survey polled 500 Federal Government Managers who are defined as “federal employees living in the National Capitol Region and earning at least $75,000 annually.”
“Our research confirms that the Administrative State is not composed of thoughtful, nonpartisan experts who are making neutral decisions for voters,” said Scott Rasmussen, founder of the Napolitan Institute. “The deep partisan divide within the federal bureaucracy and the shifting public opinion present significant challenges for the current administration.”
Trump had warned about the partisanship of the federal service when he signed the “Restoring Accountability To Policy-Influencing Positions Within The Federal Workforce” executive order.
“In recent years, however, there have been numerous and well-documented cases of career Federal employees resisting and undermining the policies and directives of their executive leadership,” it read.
Besides the federal service, employees in other branches of the executive have demonstrated partisanship that threatens to undermine government policy.
Recently, O’Kefee Media Group (OMG) exposed a Department of Defense chief calling President Trump “Illegitimate” and vowing to “Resist Him, Everything He Does.”
Acts of defiance or silent resistance are common at the Department of Defense. The commander of Fort McCoy, Col. Sheyla Baez Ramirez, was suspended after failing to hang the photographs of President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on the wall displaying the command chain.
U.S. NATO’s Military Committee representative, U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield, was also allegedly removed for similar reasons, according to unhinged Democrat Jasmine Crockett.
Similarly, the Commander of the U.S. 821st Space Base Group at Pituffik in Greenland, Space Force Col. Susannah Meyers, was removed from the command after apologizing for the Vice President’s visit and disclaiming his speech as not “reflective of Pituffik Space Base.”
While resistance by federal bureaucrats poses a significant threat to the government’s policy, the breach of the civilian chain of command by military officials is more concerning.
