Opinions on Donald Trump and his policies are sharply divided just after his inauguration on January 20, a new survey shows. Majorities of Americans anticipate that compared to his first term as president, during his second term there will be more executive orders, pardons, and trade disputes, among other changes.
More Americans say it feels like "it's everyone for themselves" (55%) in this country than that "we're all in it together" (25%). Similar shares (50% and 22%, respectively) gave these responses in 2017 just after Trump's first inauguration, though Democrats are gloomier this time around: 67% of Democrats now think everyone is in it for themselves, compared to 51% who said so in 2017.
Our latest survey finds that 77% of Americans say that during Trump's second term, they expect there to be more immigration enforcement actions compared to his first term. Large shares also expect increases in the amount of executive orders issued (70%), federal agency restructuring (65%), pardons issued (56%), and tax policy changes (55%). Many expect there will be more trade disputes (52%), use of military force domestically (48%), use of emergency powers (47%), and legislation passed (47%).
More Americans think there will be a decrease than expect an increase in the number of Trump's policies that are overturned by the Supreme Court, as well as in the amount of legal investigations into Trump and impeachments of him.
The survey also asked Americans about 20 policies that Trump either mentioned in his inauguration speech or took action toward implementing during his first or second day in office.
The most popular of these, strongly or somewhat supported by majorities, are designating criminal cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (69% support), making public the remaining sealed records relating to the assassination of John F. Kennedy (66%), creating a commission to audit the federal government and cut government spending (64%), and reinstating service members who were expelled from the military for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine (59%).
Trump's least popular policies — among those polled — are to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America (28% support), to withdraw from the World Health Organization (29%), to impose a 25% tariff on goods imported from Mexico and Canada (33%), and to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accords (34%).
Each of the 20 Trump-proposed policies that we polled is more popular among Republicans than among Democrats. The largest gaps in support between the parties are for policies declaring a national emergency at the U.S. southern border, arresting and deporting millions of illegal immigrants, and ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the federal government. The smallest gaps are on proposals to designate criminal cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, release records related to the Kennedy assassination, and to delay enforcement of the TikTok ban for at least 75 days.
Related:
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- Most Americans see corruption among politicians, judges, and executives as serious problems
- What do Americans know about Donald Trump?
- After the 2024 election, voters share hopes and fears for a second Trump term
- How Americans have reacted to Donald Trump's 2024 victory
See the results for this YouGov survey
— Carl Bialik contributed to this article
Methodology: This article includes results from an online survey conducted January 21 - 23, 2025 among 1,1140 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of adult U.S. citizens. 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 4%.
Image: Getty
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