This week’s Economist/YouGov poll covers opinions on party leadership, immigration and deportations, the U.S. education system, and transgender issues.
Party problems
- The Democratic Party is more disliked than liked this week, with a net favorability of -19 among Americans overall, compared to -4 for the Republican Party
- Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer is even more disliked than his party. His net favorability is -27, which is far lower than other current congressional leaders — but higher than Schumer's -33 last week
- Few see the Democratic Party as having a clear leader: Only 7% of Americans say it does, including 16% of Democrats and Independents who lean toward the Democratic Party
- Of the respondents who are Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents and who said the Democratic Party has a clear leader, 90 responded with a name of who they think it is. The people most frequently mentioned as leaders of the Democratic Party are Kamala Harris (named by 25), Hakeem Jeffries (16), Schumer (14), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (14), Bernie Sanders (7), Ken Martin (5), Jasmine Crockett (4), and Joe Biden (3)
- A separate YouGov survey released this week found that majorities of Democrats agree that their party doesn't challenge the other party forcefully enough, lacks a unified strategy, and lacks new leadership and fresh ideas. Far fewer Republicans than Democrats hold each of these views about the Republican Party
- Similarly, this week's Economist/YouGov survey finds that 71% of Democrats believe that Democrats in Congress aren't doing enough to resist actions by Trump, up from 60% in mid-February
Immigration and deportations
- More Americans think that immigration makes the U.S. better off (41%) than worse off (26%), while 19% believe that immigration does not make much difference to the country
- 46% of Americans believe Trump's approach to immigration policy is too harsh, while 41% say it is about right, and 5% think it is too soft. These results have changed little since January, at the start of Trump's term, when we last asked this question
- 51% of Americans strongly or somewhat approve of how Trump is handling immigration, and 44% disapprove
- That's Trump's highest approval out of 10 issues asked about in the poll — higher than approval for Trump's handling of crime (47% approve / 38% disapprove), taxes and government spending (46% / 46%), or jobs and the economy (43% / 47%)
- Trump's +7 net approval of his handling of immigration is also higher than at almost any time during his first term
- About three-quarters (76%) of Americans have heard about the recent deportation of Venezuelan immigrants in the U.S. to a prison in El Salvador, including equal shares of Democrats (83%) and Republicans (83%)
- More Americans view El Salvador as an ally or friendly to the U.S. than say the same about Venezuela (30% vs. 17%), and fewer say El Salvador is an enemy or unfriendly than say so about Venezuela (25% vs. 45%)
- The Venezuelan deportees were described by the Trump administration as gang members, but many Americans don't think the description applies to all of the deportees: 15% believe all of the deportees were gang members, 21% think most were, 10% think half were, and 28% think few or none were
- 53% of Americans think the Trump administration is making many or some mistakes in who it is deporting, while 20% think it has made only a few mistakes and 14% think it has made no mistakes. Only 33% of Republicans% think the Trump administration has made no mistakes in its deportations
- Americans are far more likely to hold the view that "the government should try to solve problems carefully, making as few mistakes as possible, even if that means they might solve the problem more slowly" than the view that "the government should try to solve problems as quickly as possible, even if that means they might make mistakes" (76% vs. 24%). 91% of Democrats and 61% of Republicans hold the former view, preferring slower and more careful approaches to problems
- More Americans strongly or somewhat disapprove than approve of the decision to deport Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador without hearings (47% vs. 35%)
- While only 41% of Americans believe that immigrants facing deportation have the right to challenge their deportation in court, more — 51% — believe immigrants facing deportation should have this right
- Many Americans (31%) are unsure whether the Trump administration has disobeyed any court orders when deporting immigrants; 39% believe it has disobeyed any such orders and 30% think it has not
- Even though many Americans aren't sure about Trump's response to the courts thus far, 51% believe that in the future, the Trump administration will disobey court orders regarding the deportation of immigrants
- 64% of Americans believe the Trump administration should obey court orders when deporting immigrants, while 18% believe it should not obey them. 88% of Democrats believe the administration should obey orders and only 6% think it shouldn't. Republicans are more divided: 40% think the Trump administration should obey immigration orders and 33% think it should not
Education
- 58% of Americans strongly or somewhat oppose eliminating the Department of Education, while 31% support its elimination
- Only 17% of Americans think the president has the authority to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education without the approval of Congress; 52% think the president does not have that power
- 24% think the president should have the power to eliminate the Department of Education, more than the 17% who say the president does have this power
- 53% of Americans say that eliminating the Department of Education would hurt public schools in their community — a little (10%) or a lot (43%) — while 23% think it would help their local schools
- About two-thirds (64%) of Americans who support eliminating the Department of Education believe doing so would help public schools in their community, while most (85%) of the people who oppose the department's elimination think it would hurt their local schools
- Only 22% of Americans believe that the federal government should play a large role in K-12 education; a similar share — 21% — say the same about the federal government's role in higher education
- Many Americans (41%) say they are not sure whether they approve or disapprove of how universities have responded to Trump's executive orders relating to higher education. 25% of people strongly or somewhat approve of university responses, while 35% disapprove
Transgender issues
- 40% of Americans think society has gone too far in accepting people who are transgender, while 30% think it has not gone far enough, and 16% think it has been about right on acceptance
- People who know a transgender person — including someone they know well or an acquaintance — are about twice as likely as those who don't to think that society has not gone far enough in its acceptance (47% vs. 21%)
- By 64% to 20%, Americans are more likely to strongly or somewhat oppose than to support allowing transgender student athletes to play on sports teams that match their gender identity, rather than the sex they were assigned at birth
- And by 50% to 36%, Americans are more likely to support the federal government defunding universities that allow transgender women to play on women's sports teams
- While Democrats and Republicans have dramatically different views on transgender rights, many of them do agree on one thing: Lawmakers are spending too much time on transgender issues. 52% of Americans think too much focus is put on transgender issues, including similar shares of Democrats (53%) and Republicans (51%). Only 13% of Americans, including small shares of both parties, believe lawmakers are focusing too little on these issues
— David Montgomery and 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 22 - 25, 2025 Economist/YouGov Poll
Methodology: The poll was conducted among 1,600 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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