More than half of Americans feel artists invited to perform at the presidential inauguration shouldn’t have to if they don’t want to, according to a new poll released Thursday.
A Morning Consult/Politico poll showed 56 percent of respondents think artists have a right to turn down an invitation if they don’t want to perform at a president’s inauguration. The poll showed 31 percent of people think artists should perform if they’re invited.
The poll comes in the wake of major names like Elton John, Kanye West and Justin Timberlake turning down invitations from President-elect Trump to perform at his inauguration later on this month.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, more Republicans took a negative view of celebrities skipping Trump’s inauguration than Democrats. According to the poll, 53 percent of Republicans thought they should perform if invited while 77 percent of Democrats said it was OK to skip the performance.
Of the people who said they wouldn’t perform at the inauguration, only Kanye West saw his favorability ratings decline among those polled.
John, Timberlake, Bruno Mars and John Legend all received bumps in their favorability rating for saying they wouldn’t perform at Trump’s inauguration.
The poll was done between Dec. 28 and Dec. 29 among 2,000 voters across the country.
