This week’s Economist/YouGov poll covers Donald Trump's popularity, his executive orders, congressional responses, Elon Musk, DOGE, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Trump's falling approval rating
- President Donald Trump began his presidency on a surge of popularity, unprecedented for him. That has now faded
- More people strongly or somewhat approved of how he was handling his job as president (49%) than disapproved (43%)
- More people had a very or somewhat favorable opinion about Trump personally (50%) than had an unfavorable opinion (48%)
- Both Trump's net favorability and net approval — meaning the difference between the share with a positive view and the share with a negative one — were higher than they ever were during his first term as president
- But Economist / YouGov Polls since then have shown Trump's approval rating and personal popularity both falling over the past two weeks; this week's poll finds Americans are less likely to approve of Trump (46%) than to disapprove (48%), and less likely to view him favorably (46%) than unfavorably (52%)
- Trump's popularity has particularly dropped among younger Americans. Two weeks ago, 50% of adults under 30 had a favorable opinion of Trump, while 46% had an unfavorable opinion; today, 39% have a favorable opinion and 57% have an unfavorable opinion
- Trump's favorability among adults aged 30 to 44 has also fallen, from 45% favorable / 51% unfavorable to 42% favorable / 55% unfavorable
Trump and Congress
- Trump has attempted to stretch the limits of executive power during his second term, including withholding congressionally-appropriated funds from federal agencies. A YouGov poll conducted Tuesday finds that in situations like this, more Americans believe the funds should generally be spent than think the funds should be withheld at the president's request (46% vs. 24%). Additionally, it found that more think federal judge rulings blocking presidential actions should be followed than think they should not (57% vs. 21%). And more Americans think Trump's administration has disobeyed court orders than think he hasn't (35% vs. 28%), though many (38%) are unsure
- Americans are more likely to strongly or somewhat disagree (55%) than agree (28%) that presidents should govern without too much interference from Congress and the courts. Similar shares held these opinions the last time this question was asked, in July 2019
- Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents are slightly more likely to feel positively than negatively about how congressional Democrats are responding to Trump's executive orders: 44% strongly or somewhat approve and 34% strongly or somewhat disapprove
- While more Democrats and Democratic leaners now approve of congressional Democrats' responses to Trump than did last week, a growing share also say the party isn't doing enough to resist Trump's actions that they disagree with: 70% say congressional Democrats aren't doing enough, up 9 points from 61% who said so last week
- Support for bipartisan policy work has fallen among Democrats. Compared to the start of Trump's presidency, Democrats are now 11 points less likely to say that Democratic members of Congress should work with Trump on policies they do agree on, and 7 points more likely to say they should oppose everything Trump does
- More Republicans think that congressional Republicans should support all of Trump's policies (46%) than say they should oppose him in areas where they disagree (32%). But this does mark a slight decline in Republican solidarity with Trump since the start of his term: At that point, 52% said Republicans in Congress should always back him, 6 points more than do now
- The share of Americans with a very unfavorable view of Republican Speaker Mike Johnson is at its highest point since we began measuring in November 2023: 28% of Americans currently view him very unfavorably. Fewer have very negative views of Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune, in large part because fewer have an opinion on him at all. Each Republican congressional leader has a net favorability of -10
Elon Musk and DOGE
- More Americans view Elon Musk very or somewhat unfavorably (52%) than favorably (42%), and his popularity has fallen in recent weeks. This share who say they have a very unfavorable opinion of Musk increased 7 percentage points in the past week, to 43% from 36%. This shift was especially pronounced among Independents and younger adults
- Musk is increasingly seen as highly influential within Trump's administration: 63% of Americans say he has a lot of influence. That has increased from 51% in the prior week's poll
- Many think Musk is too influential: Only 18% of Americans say they want him to have a lot of influence
- The share of Americans saying they want Musk to play a large role in Trump's administration has increased slightly in the past week, driven mostly by a moderate rise among Republicans. However, some Republicans would prefer for Musk to play a smaller role: More say he currently has a lot of influence (46%) than want him to (35%). And 13% of Republicans don't want Musk to have any influence within the administration
- The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which Musk heads, is viewed favorably (42%) by more than view it unfavorably (38%). It is, however, less popular than 15 agencies asked about in recent weeks of the poll — including agencies DOGE has tried to dismantle (the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency)
- Few are in favor of interference or cuts to some of the agencies Musk has intervened in: Only 28% support abolishing the Department of Education, 16% support abolishing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and 15% support ending the free tax filing system run by the IRS
- Views are divided on what the outcome of Musk's cuts will be: About equal shares say that it is closer to their view that Musk is cutting waste and fraud (49%) as say he is cutting useful programs (51%).
- Musk has suggested using artificial intelligence to analyze government data and suggest spending cuts. A separate YouGov survey this week found that more U.S. adults oppose (44%) than support (34%) this idea, and more think it's likely that doing so would result in the cutting of useful programs than in a reduction in waste and fraud
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- Americans are more supportive of the Palestinians in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than they have been since at least 2017
- 21% of U.S. adult citizens say they sympathize more with the Palestinians than with the Israelis in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- That's less than the 31% who say they sympathize more with the Israelis, and than the 23% who say they sympathize with both sides about equally
- But it's a larger share than has ever said they sympathize more with the Palestinians in the seven-year history of the Economist / YouGov asking this question
- Rising sympathies with the Palestinians are particularly driven by Democrats — 35% of them sympathize more with the Palestinians, just 9% with the Israelis, and 32% with both equally
- The 9% of Democrats who sympathize more with the Israelis is down from 34% in the immediate aftermath of Hamas's October 7, 2023 attacks. The 35% who sympathize more with the Palestinians is up from 16% in the October 14 - 17, 2023 survey
- In the seven-year history of Economist / YouGov polling on this question, Democratic sympathies for the Palestinians have never been this high relative to the share of Democrats who say they sympathize about equally with both sides, which has tended to be the largest group of Democrats
- Republican sympathies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are little changed from October 2023. At that time, 73% of Republicans sympathized more with the Israelis and 3% with the Palestinians; today 60% back the Israelis and 6% back the Palestinians
- Only 19% of Americans strongly or somewhat support Trump's proposal for the U.S. to take ownership of Gaza, including 6% of Democrats and 39% of Republicans; 54% oppose it, including 74% of Democrats and 33% of Republicans
- More oppose the removal of all Palestinians from Gaza (44%) than support it (21%). Roughly one-third (34%) of Americans agree that moving all Palestinians out of Gaza constitutes genocide, while 32% disagree with that
Throughout this report, some numbers may appear to be off by 1 because of rounding
— Carl Bialik contributed to this article
See the toplines and crosstabs for the February 9 - 11, 2025 Economist/YouGov Poll
Methodology: The poll was conducted among 1,595 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 3.5%.
Image: Getty (Andrew Harnik / Staff)
What do you think about President Trump, American politics in general, and everything else? Have your say, join the YouGov panel, and get paid to share your thoughts. Sign up here.
