This week’s Economist/YouGov poll covers the start of Donald Trump's second term, approval of his appointments and policies, the state of the country, how Congress should work with the new president, and wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
Trump's presidency begins
- Donald Trump was sworn in Monday for his second term as president; he faces a divided country, but slightly larger shares view Trump positively than have negative views, across a range of questions — about him, his presidency, his appointments, and his policies
- 49% of Americans have a very or somewhat favorable opinion about Trump, while 48% have a very or somewhat unfavorable opinion
- The weeks since Trump's November electoral victory have been Trump's most popular time since YouGov began regularly polling Americans' views of him during the 2016 presidential campaign
- This is the first sustained period in Trump's political career in which similar shares of Americans have favorable and unfavorable opinions about him; he spent his entire first term as president, and most of Joe Biden's presidency, with significantly more unfavorable views than favorable views
- 49% of Americans say they feel either enthusiastic (35%) or satisfied (15%) about Trump's presidency; 44% feel either upset (29%) or dissatisfied (15%)
- While none of the prominent Trump appointees we polled are overwhelmingly popular, all eight who remain slated for administration positions have approval — strongly or somewhat — from more Americans than the shares who disapprove
- For each of five appointments, at least one-quarter of Americans aren't sure if they approve or disapprove
- The poll also asked about Vivek Ramaswamy as co-leader of the Department of Government Efficiency initiative, but Ramaswamy was removed from that position earlier this week
- Some policies Trump talked about during his presidential campaign are strongly or somewhat supported by majorities of Americans
- This includes arresting and deporting millions of illegal immigrants, a policy that 53% of U.S. adult citizens support and 38% oppose
- Other policies of the 10 included in the poll have more opposition than support, including Trump's proposal to end birthright citizenship, the longstanding practice by which most children born on American soil become U.S. citizens; 49% of U.S. adult citizens strongly or somewhat oppose this policy, while 40% support it
- Most of the 10 policies polled have support from majorities of Republicans
- All 10 are opposed by majorities of Democrats
- By far the least popular of the 10 policies is prosecuting people who have been critical of Donald Trump
- While some of these and other Trump promises divide Americans, many expect Trump to follow through with them
- 43% of U.S. adult citizens say Trump will try to keep all (22%) or most (22%) of his campaign promises, while another 26% say Trump will try to keep some of them
- A majority of Americans (60%) say Trump will keep at least some of his campaign promises, including 35% who say he will keep most or all of them
- Majorities expect Trump will successfully implement seven out of the 10 policies asked about (some of which Trump has already done in his first few days in office):
- Mass deportations of illegal immigrants
- Funding a border wall
- Pardoning participants in the January 6, 2021 attack
- Imposing a 10% tariff on imports
- Removing environmental regulations to promote fossil fuel production
- Ending diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in schools and government
- Ending birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants
- For six of those policies, majorities of both supporters and opponents of the policy expect Trump will implement it
- Americans are less likely to expect Trump to:
- Successfully reduce regulation on cryptocurrency
- Seek ownership of Greenland and the Panama Canal
- Prosecute his critics
- Americans are less likely to expect Trump to:
- Supporters of Trump's proposed policies generally are more likely than opponents to expect he will succeed in implementing them
How Democrats and Republicans feel as Trump takes office
- The vibes are bad — but changing fast
- Democrats, Independents, and Republicans are all more likely to say the country is off on the wrong track than headed in the right direction
- But since the November election, Republicans have gone from overwhelmingly saying the U.S. is on the wrong track (86% in late October) to nearly split (49% now); Democrats have gone from 37% saying the country's on the wrong track in October to 63% today
- If past trends continue, we'll likely see sentiments among Democrats continue to fall, and sentiments among Republicans continue to rise; the reverse happened early in Biden's presidency
- 81% of Democrats say they're either upset (59%) or dissatisfied (22%) at the prospect of Trump's new term, while 16% are enthusiastic (4%) or satisfied (12%); among Republicans, just 5% are either upset (2%) or dissatisfied (3%), while 93% are either enthusiastic (78%) or satisfied (15%)
- Despite Democrats' negative feelings about Trump, most of them want Democrats in Congress to be willing to work with the president: 70% say Democratic representatives should work with Trump on policies they agree with, while only 19% want Congressional Democrats to oppose all of Trump's policies
- Republicans are more likely than Democrats to want complete party loyalty from their representatives: 26% of Republicans say Republicans in Congress should oppose Trump's policies that they don't personally agree with, while 56% say they should support all of Trump's policies
Foreign wars
- As fighting continues in the Russia-Ukraine war, 25% of Americans want the U.S. to decrease military aid to Ukraine; this includes 38% of Republicans and just 9% of Democrats
- 27% of Americans want to increase aid to Ukraine, and 26% want to keep it at the same level
- While Republicans are most likely to say the U.S. should decrease military aid to Ukraine, 38% is the lowest share of Republicans to say this in more than a year
- In December, 47% of Republicans wanted to cut Ukraine aid
- Most Republicans see Ukraine as a friendly country to the U.S. and Russia as an unfriendly country
- 54% of those Americans who want to decrease military aid to Ukraine see Ukraine as either a friendly country (41%) or as an ally (14%); 30% of them see Ukraine as unfriendly (19%) or an enemy (12%)
- Among those who would either increase or maintain current levels of military aid to Ukraine, 88% see Ukraine as friendly (42%) or an ally (47%), while just 6% see it as unfriendly (5%) or an enemy (1%)
- Like with Ukraine, most Americans also see Israel as either an ally (41%) or a friend (25%); 9% see Israel as unfriendly and 5% see it as an enemy
- Among the 32% of Americans who sympathize more with the Israelis in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 76% say Israel is an ally, 19% say it's friendly, while 2% say it's unfriendly and less than 1% say it's an enemy
- Among the 15% who sympathize more with the Palestinians, 26% say Israel is an ally, 24% say it's friendly, 19% say it's unfriendly, and 16% say it's an enemy
- Among the 28% who sympathize about equally with both sides, 36% say Israel is an ally, 40% say it's friendly, 10% say it's unfriendly, and 2% say it's an enemy
- About half of Americans (52%) somewhat or strongly approve of the recent ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza; only 10% somewhat or strongly disapprove
- This includes majority approval from 59% of Israeli sympathizers, 55% of Palestinian sympathizers, and 61% who sympathize about equally with both sides
- Americans who sympathize more with Israel are somewhat more likely to disapprove of the deal: 18% of them disapprove, compared to 9% of Palestinian sympathizers and 10% who sympathize with both sides; in all three groups approval is far more widespread than disapproval
- 40% of Americans give Joe Biden some credit or a great deal of credit for negotiating the ceasefire; 41% give Donald Trump some or a great deal of credit
- 70% of Democrats and 18% of Republicans give Biden at least some credit, while 18% of Democrats and 71% of Republicans give Trump at least some credit
Throughout this report, some numbers may appear to be off by 1 because of rounding
— Carl Bialik and Taylor Orth contributed to this article
See the toplines and crosstabs for the January 19 - 21, 2025 Economist/YouGov Poll
Methodology: The poll was conducted among 1,609 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of U.S. adult citizens. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3%
Image: Getty (Pool / Pool)
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