Do Americans support Trump’s policies? Only one topic has majority approval, polls find

Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has implemented or advocated for numerous policies across just about every sector of society. How popular are they?

According to a new aggregation of YouGov polls conducted between Jan. 19 and Feb. 25, public opinion on these policies tends to skew more negative than positive.

Out of 83 policies that were asked about — without mentioning Trump in the questions — 50 received net negative support, while 31 received net positive support. And when these policies were grouped into 12 categories, just one category garnered average support above 50%.

Here is a breakdown of the results by category.

Support for Trump’s policies by category

The one policy area where Trump received majority approval was LGBTQ policy, with an average of 54% support and 33% opposition.

All five of the policies in this category pertained to transgender issues, which Trump campaigned on heavily in 2024. The policies included banning transgender athletes from women’s sports, banning gender-affirming care for minors and banning transgender Americans from serving in the military.

Trump received net positive support on two other categories: the economy and immigration. An average of 42% and 44% of respondents, respectively, supported Trump’s policies in these categories, while an average of 33% and 38% opposed them.

Among the specific policies included in these categories were eliminating the penny from U.S. currency, declaring a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, funding a border wall and ending birthright citizenship.

Meanwhile, the nine other policy categories received net negative support on average from poll respondents.

On education policy, an average of 44% were opposed, while an average of 38% were in favor. The two policies in this category were: ending federal funding for universities and schools that require COVID-19 vaccination, and allowing parents to apply public funds to private or religious schooling.

On foreign policy, an average of 42% of respondents were opposed, while 35% were in support. The specific policies included seeking U.S. ownership of the Panama Canal, renaming the Gulf of Mexico and withdrawing from the World Health Organization.

Trump performed even worse in the crime category, with an average of 44% opposed and 35% in favor. Policies in this grouping included designated criminal cartels as foreign terrorist organizations — which was broadly popular — and pardoning Jan. 6 defendants, which was largely unpopular.

The category that Trump performed the worst in — by a wide margin — was executive power. An average of 60% of respondents opposed these policies, while 23% supported them. Among the policies in this grouping were firing FBI agents involved in investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and prosecuting people who have been critical of Trump.

This story was originally published February 27, 2025 at 9:30 AM with the headline "Do Americans support Trump’s policies? Only one topic has majority approval, polls find."