A Kiefer Sutherland quote attributed to the actor in a social-media graphic claims that Donald Trump has divided America more than any previous president. Hourly Times could not independently verify the wording or locate an original recording, transcript or statement establishing when and where Sutherland supposedly said it.
The attribution should therefore be treated as unverified, rather than presented as a confirmed celebrity statement. That finding does not establish that the quotation is fabricated; it means the available evidence is insufficient to authenticate it.
The graphic also raises a separate question about political division. Published polling documents sharp differences between Republicans and Democrats, but those findings do not prove that one president caused every division or settle a comparison covering all American history.
What the Kiefer Sutherland quote check found
The supplied image places portraits of Trump and Sutherland beside a statement asserting that no earlier president divided the country as much as Trump. It does not identify an interview, publication, event date or original post that readers can consult to verify the attribution.
Searches located the same claim on a third-party social account. However, the account’s repetition of the statement does not establish that Sutherland said it. The underlying post could not be directly reviewed, and no accessible primary source confirming the exact wording was located.
A verified, separate account of Sutherland’s views appears in Vanity Fair’s July 2, 2026 feature about actors who portrayed presidents. Discussing his role in Designated Survivor, Sutherland described developing respect for the difficulties of presidential decision-making and for former presidents, including those with whom he disagreed ideologically.
That published contribution does not contain the disputed comparison about Trump. It confirms a different set of remarks and should not be used to authenticate the Kiefer Sutherland quote in the graphic.
What polling shows about views of Trump
Gallup’s August 26, 2025 report provides a documented example of the partisan divide. In its August 1–20 survey, 93% of Republicans approved of Trump’s job performance, compared with 1% of Democrats.
Subtracting 1 from 93 produces a 92-percentage-point gap. Gallup said that tied the largest partisan difference in its presidential approval trend, previously recorded in October 2020.
The survey’s published questions and methodology identify telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,094 adults across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The full-sample margin of sampling error was plus or minus four percentage points at the 95% confidence level; subgroup uncertainty is different.
These figures describe attitudes during that 2025 survey, not current approval ratings. They show that Republicans and Democrats evaluated the president very differently. They do not measure the share of Americans who believe he is the most divisive president ever.
Political polarization predates Trump’s presidency
Pew Research Center’s June 12, 2014 study documented increasing ideological separation and hostility between the parties before Trump’s first presidency. Its national telephone survey included 10,013 adults and examined changes over the preceding two decades.
The research found less ideological overlap between Republicans and Democrats and a substantial increase in strongly negative views of the opposing party. It also found that most Americans did not hold uniformly liberal or conservative positions.
Later research showed that hostility extended to individual voters. In an August 2022 report, Pew found that growing shares of Republicans and Democrats described people in the other party as more immoral, dishonest and closed-minded than other Americans.
These are respondents’ judgments about political opponents, not findings that those opponents actually possess the negative traits. The distinction matters when using survey results to explain distrust.
What remains unverified
The Kiefer Sutherland quote requires an authentic original source before it can be reported as his statement. Its date, setting and full context remain unknown, and no response to this specific attribution was located from Sutherland.
Describing Trump as America’s worst president or calling the country the Divided States of America expresses a political evaluation. The polling reviewed here cannot establish either description as a settled historical fact.
The verification finding remains unverified, not disproved. A complete original interview, recording, transcript or authenticated statement would be needed to reassess the attribution.
