This week’s Economist/YouGov poll covers opinions of Donald Trump administration figures, Trump policy proposals, government budget cuts, the state of U.S. democracy, and Trump's attitude toward world powers.
Trump's administration and policies
- Donald Trump's favorability and job approval have dipped since the start of his term. His net favorability has fallen 5 percentage points in the past month, and net approval of his handling of the job has declined by 2 points; net favorability and approval are calculated by subtracting the percentage of Americans with a negative opinion from the percentage with a positive opinion
- Americans' views are mixed on other members of the Trump administration, whom we have asked about on various surveys over the past month. More have negative than positive views of presidential advisor Elon Musk (-7) and Vice President JD Vance (-6)
- White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi are the only members of Trump's administration included in February surveys who have net favorable ratings (each +1); they are also the least well-known among those included
- Far more Americans say that Musk is having a lot of influence on Trump's administration than say they want him to (63% vs. 16%)
- 85% of Democrats view Musk as being highly influential in the Trump administration, while 7% say they want him to be
- Among Republicans, 49% view Musk as highly influential, compared to 29% who say they want him to be
- Musk's perceived influence has grown over the past few weeks: 63% of Americans say he has a lot of influence within Trump's administration, relative to 51% who said so at the start of February
- The net favorability of Republican House and Senate leaders — Mike Johnson (-11) and John Thune (-12) — is more negative than those of Trump and members of his administration
- Democratic Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer also is perceived quite negatively (-12 net favorability). Democratic House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries has a somewhat higher rating of -1; Jeffries is lesser-known than Johnson or Schumer, as is Thune
- All current congressional leaders fare far better than former Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell, whose net favorability sits at -43
- Both of the major political parties are more likely to be viewed negatively than positively. Net favorability of the Republican Party (-10) is somewhat higher than that of the Democratic Party (-17)
- Opinion on Trump's policy agenda is generally more negative than positive. Of 83 policies asked about by YouGov — including on the Economist / YouGov Poll and other surveys — since the start of Trump's term, without mentioning him in the questions, 50 are opposed by more Americans than support them in the latest poll asking about each, while 31 receive net positive support, and 2 are supported and opposed by equal shares
- Building on others' efforts to aggregate opinion on Trump policy such as this one and our own policy polling before November's presidential election, we have grouped our polling results into broad policy areas
- Trump's policies related to LGBTQ issues generally receive more support than opposition, and many of his immigration actions are also viewed more positively than negatively
- Many of his plans and actions related to executive power, crime, health care, and DEI are unpopular
- Majorities of Americans oppose Trump prosecuting those who are critical of him (72%), revoking a law that lowers the cost of prescription drugs (67%), and requiring federal agencies to interpret laws only as the president says they should (58%)
- Majorities support Trump's decisions to designate criminal cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (69%), to ban transgender athletes from participating in women's sports (64%), and to require asylum seekers at the southern border to wait in Mexico for their immigration hearings (56%)
DOGE and government funding
- Many Americans (42%) think the Trump administration's efforts to reduce the budgets and staff of federal agencies have gone too far; 24% think they have been about right, and 17% think they haven't gone far enough
- The vast majority of Democrats (79%) think Trump's efforts to reduce the size of the federal government have gone too far. Most Republicans disagree: 45% say the efforts have been about right and 33% think they haven't gone far enough; only 8% say they've gone too far
- Over the past two weeks, we've asked Americans whether they think funding for 20 federal agencies and departments should be expanded, kept the same, reduced, or eliminated
- Half or more Americans support either maintaining or increasing funding for 18 of the 20 agencies; the two exceptions are the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
- 37% of Americans think that DOGE should be reduced or eliminated, and 35% say the same about USAID
- Few support cuts to other agencies targeted by DOGE in the past month, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the U.S. Department of Education, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Park Service (NPS), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
- 27% of Americans say that someone they know — including themselves, a family member, or another person — has been personally affected by recent cuts in government agencies and programs
- Far more Democrats (42%) than Republicans (13%) say they know someone who has been affected by reductions in government spending
- Open-ended responses to a follow-up question asking people affected by recent government cuts to elaborate on how they have been affected include mentions of job loss and insecurity, financial hardship, education cuts, and problems accessing health care
The state of U.S. democracy
- Donald Trump recently posted to social media an image of himself wearing a crown with a New York City backdrop and a caption that included the phrase, “LONG LIVE THE KING!”
- We find that about half of Americans — 49% — think that Trump wants to be the king of the United States. Only 7%, however, say that he should be king
- The vast majority of Democrats (82%) think Trump wants to be king, while only 2% want him to be
- Few Republicans think Trump wants to be king (17%) or should be king (15%)
- More Americans are completely or somewhat dissatisfied with the way democracy is working in the U.S. than are satisfied (51% vs. 37%)
- Democrats are now more dissatisfied with the state of democracy than they were just after the election: 74% say they are dissatisfied, compared to 58% who said so in November
- Republicans, on the other hand, have grown more confident in the state of U.S. democracy: 65% are satisfied, up from 46% in November — when they were already more likely than Democrats to be satisfied with U.S. democracy
- Americans are divided on the extent to which Trump respects democratic institutions and traditions in the U.S.: 26% say he does a great deal, 18% say a fair amount, 12% say not much, and 36% say not at all
- Views on this question are more polarized now than they were the last time the Economist/YouGov Poll asked this question, in 2018 during Trump's first term
- The share of Democrats saying Trump has no respect for democratic institutions and traditions has increased 15 percentage points since 2018, while the share of Republicans saying he has a great deal of respect increased 9 points
International relations
- As negotiations between the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine continue, most Americans (58%) continue to side with Ukraine in the conflict; only 3% sympathize more with Russia
- However, a significant portion of Americans — 41% — think that Trump sympathizes more with Russia; only 13% believe he sides primarily with Ukraine
- Nearly half of Republicans (47%) take Ukraine's side in the conflict — a 5-point drop from last week
- Republicans' views on where Trump stands are mixed: 37% think he doesn't side with either Ukraine or Russia, 23% think he sides with Ukraine, and 16% think he sides with Russia
- Republicans who side with neither country or with Russia largely think that Trump takes one of these two positions (77%), but Republicans who side with Ukraine have mixed views on Trump's stance: 44% think he, too, sides with Ukraine, while 39% think he sides with Russia or with neither side
- Hardly any Americans (4%) agree with Trump's assertion that Ukraine initiated the conflict against Russia; even among Republicans, only 6% think Ukraine is to blame
- But as Trump has continued to criticize Volodymyr Zelensky, Republicans' views on Ukraine's president have grown more negative. In the past week, the share of Republicans with an unfavorable view of Zelensky has increased 16 points, to 56% from 40%
- How do Americans perceive Trump's attitude toward other countries? We asked whether Trump considers various places to be allies, friendly, unfriendly, or enemies of the U.S. The net friendliness is the result of subtracting the share who say Trump views each place as unfriendly or an enemy from the share who say he thinks each is an ally or friendly
- Majorities of Americans believe that Trump considers Israel (+54 net) and the United Kingdom (+28) as allies or friendly
- France (+15), Germany (+15), and Canada (+7) are also more likely to be thought of as Trump's allies or friends than enemies or unfriendly, but by smaller margins
- Russia (+2) is near neutral, with opinions on Trump's position almost evenly split. Slightly more think he views Ukraine as an enemy or unfriendly than as an ally or friendly (-8)
- Mexico (-36) and China (-47) stand out as the countries that Americans are most likely to believe Trump considers to be enemies or unfriendly
- The Economist/YouGov last asked about Trump's attitude toward other countries in December 2018, during his first term. Compared to 2018, fewer Americans now believe that Trump views the following as friends or allies of the U.S.:
- United Kingdom (+28 net now vs. +45 in 2018)
- Canada (+7 vs. +39)
- Germany (+15 vs. +39)
- Mexico (-36 vs. -14)
- China (-47 vs. -22)
- Russia (+2 vs. +15)
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 23 - 25, 2025 Economist/YouGov Poll
Methodology: The poll was conducted among 1,604 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 (Chip Somodevilla / Staff)
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