President Donald Trump’s (R) approval rating is holding steady at 47 percent, while a strong majority of Americans have expressed support for a range of his Administration’s policies, including reducing waste in the federal government and deporting criminal illegal immigrants, a new poll shows.
More nuanced positions begin to emerge, however, when respondents for the May 2025 Harvard/Harris Poll were asked more in-depth questions about these issues.
Conducted on May 14 and May 15, this poll surveyed 1,903 registered voters and has a +/-2.2 margin of error with a 95 percent confidence level. Former Hillary Clinton pollster Mark Penn guided this research, which should allay concerns that it skews Republican.
Direction of the Country
Republicans are currently more optimistic about the direction of the country under President Trump than Democrats were at the end of former President Joe Biden’s (D) term in office. Optimism among independents is around the same level as this same time last year.
Republicans and Democrats have expressed roughly the same degree of optimism concerning the economy under Trump and former President Biden respectively, with a consistent 20 to 30 percent of independents feeling that the economy is on the right track.
Pessimism concerning individuals’ personal financial situations is trending downward with a greater share of people indicating that their finances are improving or holding steady.
That said, Democrats and Republicans responded to this question in an inverse manner, with just over half of Republicans saying that their finances are improving and just over half of Democrats saying that they are getting worse. While personal finances are a concrete subject, it is also possible there is some element of projection on both sides.
Trump’s Performance Rating & Administration Policies
Since February, Trump’s approval rating has dipped slightly from 52 to 47 percent, but the changes have remained within the poll’s margin of error since March, suggesting that there has been little shift in his overall approval in recent months.
Democrats and Republicans are starkly divided over their approval of the President, with nearly all those on left opposing him and nearly all those on the right supporting him.
Although voters appeared to polarized when asked about their approval of Trump with respect to a variety of policies, levels of support seemed to increase when respondents were asked about particular policies in isolation.
For example, just 51 percent of voters said they approve of Trump’s handling of immigration, but 78 percent support his policy of “deporting immigrants who are here illegally and have committed crimes” and 70 percent backed “closing the border with added security and policies that discourage illegal crossings.”
On this theme, nearly a third (31 percent) cited stopping illegal immigration across the border as either Trump’s biggest or second biggest accomplishment so far in office.
Despite this, 82 percent of Democrats and 24 percent of Republicans indicated a belief that the Trump Administration is “unfairly deporting people who are not really criminals.” 83 percent of Democrats and 35 percent of Republicans also expressed support for Democratic efforts to “stop deportations and ensure that people who are being deported have hearings and trials before being deported.”
In addition to this, 63 percent of voters — including 42 percent of Democrats and 83 percent of Republicans — support the policy of sending “illegal immigrants who are convicted and imprisoned” to El Salvador to serve their sentences.
Another area in which there appeared to be some dissonance among the results produced by this survey was with respect to DOGE and its mission.
Just 49 percent approve of Trump’s efforts to reduce the cost of government, but 63 percent support efforts to “cut the size of government” and 67 percent agree with the goal of cutting $1 trillion in government expenditures.
Among those supporting the idea of cutting the size of government are 39 percent of Democrats, 87 percent of Republicans, and 62 percent of independents.
Additionally, 34 percent of Democrats said that others on the left should join DOGE’s mission of cutting governmental waste instead of opposing the effort to reduce governmental expenditures.
The smallest share of individuals, 42 percent, expressed support for Trump’s handling of tariffs and trade policy, however, which does align with the findings reported later in the poll. Relatedly, 26 percent cited the tariffs as Trump’s biggest or second biggest failure so far in office.
51 percent of respondents said that Trump is making bad deals on behalf of the United States, but 53 percent indicated a belief that Americans should wait and see how these policies play out before definitively opposing them. It is important to note, however, that both of these statistics, when broken down by political affiliation, represent a stark partisan divide.
When asked about the issues affecting them the most personally, 38 percent of both Democrats and Republicans cited inflation alongside 43 percent of independents.
This tracks well with the fact that a roughly equal share of Democrats and Republicans — around 30 percent — both cited inflation and the economy as the most important issue facing the nation as a whole.
27 percent pointed toward immigration, although it is not immediately clear based on these survey results the aspect of immigration to which these respondents are referring.
Balance of Powers
Respondents were also asked about the issue of so-called “judge shopping,” referring to the alleged practice of manipulating the legal system in such a way that cases are heard by judges that are expected to be favorable to a particular viewpoint.
Despite the frequent push back against these accusations in the public consciousness, 44 percent of Democrats and 68 percent of Republicans believe that this is occurring in America today.
Another apparent disconnect emerged between respondents’ answers to questions regarding allegations of judicial overreach by federal judges with respect to nationwide issues.
While only 47 percent of voters felt that judges are overstepping their authority, a whopping 71 percent expressed the belief that the power to halt nationwide programs should be reserved for a panel of judges.
When broken down by political affiliation, similar trends emerged. Despite the existence of a partisan divide concerning the appropriateness of current judicial behavior, there appears to be bipartisan agreement that putting a stop to nationwide programs should not be done by a single federal judge.
