Congressional Democrats' struggles, government cuts, deportations, and the economy: March 16-18, 2025 Economist/YouGov Poll

This week’s Economist/YouGov poll covers views on congressional leadership, government cuts, deportation policy, pro-Palestinian protests, and the effects of inflation and stock market declines.

Congressional leadership

• Many Democrats have abruptly soured on Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, after Schumer helped provide key votes to pass a Republican funding bill this month
  • Since the February 23 - 25 survey, the share of very or somewhat favorable views of Schumer among Democrats have fallen from 57% to 39%, while unfavorable views of Schumer among Democrats have risen from 18% to 41%
  • Schumer's popularity has fallen by similar amounts among moderate, liberal, and very liberal Democrats. Since last month, Schumer's net favorability has dropped from +36 to +4 among moderate Democrats, from +39 to -8 among liberal Democrats, and from +43 to -2 among very liberal Democrats. Net favorability is the percentage with a favorable opinion minus the percentage with an unfavorable opinion

• As recently as late February, Schumer's net favorability was comparable to the other three top congressional leaders'. This is no longer the case. It now stands at -33, which is far lower than for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (-4), House Speaker Mike Johnson (-6), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (-9)

• Net favorability of Democrats in Congress is also low relative to that of Republicans in Congress (-27 vs. -12)
• Congressional Democrats spent most of the past four years being more popular — or less unpopular — than congressional Republicans. But Democrats in Congress have become much less popular in the past few months, while Republicans in Congress have become more popular

Government cuts

• Nearly half of Americans (46%) believe that the Trump administration's efforts to reduce the budgets and staff of federal agencies have gone too far. 25% think the efforts have been about right, and 17% think they have not gone far enough

• 50% of Americans strongly or somewhat oppose recent layoffs of federal workers by Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE); only 38% support the layoffs
  • The rate of opposition to federal layoffs is far larger — 76%, compared to 20% who support — among the 29% of Americans who say they personally know someone who recently has been affected by cuts to government agencies and programs
• Few Americans are in favor of eliminating or reducing all but one of the eight federal agencies and departments included in this week's poll, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• The one exception is DOGE, which 43% of Americans favor eliminating (34%) or reducing (9%)

• Many more Americans continue to say that Elon Musk is having a lot of influence on Trump's administration than say they want him to (65% vs. 15%). Views on Musk's influence have been mostly stable in recent weeks

Protest and deportation

• The vast majority (80%) of Americans strongly or somewhat support the ability of Americans to protest against what they see as unjust; 7% oppose it
• There is less support for it being legal for someone in the U.S. to protest Israeli actions in Gaza: 57% say it should be legal, 12% say it should be illegal, and 31% are unsure

• 63% of Americans, including 67% of Democrats and 62% of Republicans, have heard about the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's arrest of activist Mahmoud Khalil; 20% have a favorable view of Khalil and 28% have an unfavorable view
• Under what circumstances do Americans think the U.S. should be allowed to deport immigrants?
  • About half of Americans (48%) think that the U.S. should be allowed to deport undocumented immigrants for any reason. An additional 35% think deportation of undocumented immigrants should only be allowed if they have committed a crime
  • Support for allowing deportation of non-criminal visa holders, green card holders, birthright citizens, and naturalized citizens is far lower than support for deportation of undocumented immigrants who haven't committed a crime: Support for the U.S. being able to deport people in each of these groups who have not committed crimes is below 15%

The economy

• Only 25% of Americans describe the current state of the economy as excellent or good, while 38% describe it as fair and 35% say it is poor. More say the economy is getting worse than say it is getting better (47% vs. 28%)
• Majorities of Americans say they're personally feeling a lot of impact from inflation (64%) and increasing grocery prices (70%)
• Fewer Americans (21%) say they're feeling a lot of impact from declines in the stock market, though 64% say they are feeling at least a little impact

• Americans are more likely to say that Trump is primarily responsible for the current state of the economy than that Joe Biden is (48% vs. 32%)
• Most Democrats (75%) say Trump is more responsible than Biden for the state of the economy, while only 10% say Biden is more responsible. Only 26% of Republicans say Trump is more responsible while 57% say Biden is
• Views of Democrats and Republicans on who is more responsible for the economy diverge based on how they think the economy is doing
  • The vast majority (92%) of Democrats who view the economy as poor believe Trump is more responsible for it than Biden, while Democrats who view the economy as excellent or good are more divided (30% say Biden is more responsible and 37% say Trump is)
  • Conversely, most Republicans who view the economy as poor say Biden is more responsible for it than Trump (74%), while Republicans who view the economy as excellent or good are split (43% say Biden is responsible and 40% say Trump is)

• More Americans strongly or somewhat disapprove of how Trump is handling the economy (49%) than strongly or somewhat approve (45%)
  • Trump's net approval of -4 on jobs and the economy is worse than at this time in Trump's first term, when 42% approved of Trump's handling of the economy and 39% disapproved, a +3 net approval on this issue (for the first three years of his first term the poll asked about his handling of the economy; since then the question has asked about handling of jobs and the economy)

— Carl Bialik contributed to this article

Throughout this report, some numbers may appear to be off by 1 because of rounding

See the toplines and crosstabs for the March 16 - 18, 2025 Economist/YouGov Poll

Methodology: The poll was conducted among 1,618 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 (Kayla Bartkowski / Staff)

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