While Donald Trump’s allies keep trying to convince the public that his public support is “soaring” and “skyrocketing,” the president himself claims his approval rating is “in the high 70s,” reality keeps getting in the way. In fact, the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll found Trump’s backing down to just 42% — an unusually low number for an incumbent president just three months into his term.

But while the topline results were of interest, it was some of the issue-specific data that stood out for me. From the same national survey (click the link for details about methodology and the margin of error):

23% of Republican voters said the president should defy court orders he disagrees with.
28% of Republican voters said the president should withhold funding from universities he disagrees with.
26% of Republican voters said the president should control national museums and theaters.

Some might see this and feel a sense of relief, since the views are not a majority. But the flip side is true, too: The Reuters/Ipsos data suggests roughly a fourth of rank-and-file GOP voters are on board with a radical vision in which a president has authoritarian-style authority over the rule of law and civic institutions.

This comes on the heels of a recent CBS News/YouGov poll that found 44% of Republican voters said federal judges should not be allowed to review Trump’s policies.....

The more Trump sees evidence that his party’s base approves of authoritarian tactics as legitimate, the more likely it is that the incumbent president will continue to flout the nation’s constitutional system.