FEW FIGURES have loomed as large in American political life as Donald Trump. Even out of office, the celebrity-turned-president has had an extraordinary capacity to set the political agenda, move popular sentiment and polarise Americans. Mr Trump’s return to power has underscored all this. But he is not impervious to public opinion. His second term will be shaped, and constrained, by the views and priorities of ordinary Americans. On this page, The Economist is tracking their opinions week to week, throughout his presidency.
Every week YouGov, an online pollster, asks 1,500 American adults how they feel about a range of topics. We have collated their responses to these surveys since 2009, including the latest data on the most pressing political issues—from immigration and the state of the economy to gun control and health care. The result is a snapshot of Americans’ shifting views on their politics and society over the past 16 years.
Trump’s net favourability by demographic, %
To judge the popularity of politicians, pollsters measure their “favourability” with the public. Net favourability is the share of the public who say they have a “very favourable” or “somewhat favourable” opinion of a politician, minus those who have a “somewhat unfavourable” or “very unfavourable” view.
YouGov has regularly asked voters for their opinion of Mr Trump since early 2016, when he became the front-runner for that year’s Republican nomination (see chart above). He won that year’s presidential election despite being a historically unpopular nominee, and spent his first four years in office with negative favourability—in other words, more Americans had an unfavourable opinion of him than a favourable one.
Since winning the election in November 2024, Mr Trump’s favourability has surged, putting his net favourability in positive territory for the first time ever. This popularity may not persist as he begins in earnest the knotty task of governing. But Mr Trump starts his second term on a much stronger footing with the American people than he did eight years ago.
The chart below shows his net favourability among different demographic groups. Like other Republican politicians before him, Mr Trump receives the most favourable ratings from white men. But a distinctive feature of his political career has been a growing polarisation in these ratings by educational attainment: college graduates consistently give him lower ones.
What is the most important issue facing America?
% responding by party
Mr Trump was re-elected on a wave of economic pessimism. Inflation, prices, jobs and the economy continue to be top issues for many voters. Mr Trump has said that “incomes will skyrocket, inflation will vanish completely, jobs will come roaring back and the middle class will prosper like never, ever before” during his second term. But even if he can use the president’s limited powers to rev up the economy, there is no guarantee voters will thank him. After all, strong growth and low unemployment did not save the Democrats under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Some political issues disproportionately concern partisans. Immigration is a touchstone for Mr Trump’s Republican base, as are taxes and government spending. Democrats are more worried about health care and climate change. The chart below shows the most important issues among American adults and members of each party.
Most important issues, 2017-2025
Karl Marx said that men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please. The same is true for presidents. Public opinion in Mr Trump’s first term came to be dominated by concern about health care, especially after the outbreak of covid-19. The economic effects of the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 made inflation a defining issue of Mr Biden’s presidency. The chart above shows which issues have been most important to American adults since 2017, based on weekly survey data from YouGov. ■