After a whirlwind start to his second term – marked by a flurry of executive orders and cuts to the federal workforce – President Donald Trump will address a joint session of Congress on March 4.
Ahead of the speech, here’s a look at U.S. public opinion on key policy issues, drawn from recent Pew Research Center surveys.
The public’s assessments of the economy remain largely negative, according to a survey conducted Jan. 27-Feb. 2. Around a quarter of U.S. adults (24%) say the economy is in excellent or good shape, while far more say it’s doing only fair (45%) or poor (31%).
These overall evaluations are essentially unchanged over the past year. But Republicans’ views of the economy have improved since the fall, while the opposite is true for Democrats. (Throughout this analysis, references to Republicans and Democrats include independents who lean toward each party.)
Majorities of Americans see several economic issues as very big problems in the country today. Two-thirds of adults say the affordability of health care is a very big problem – a share that’s risen 10 percentage points since last spring. Majorities also see inflation (63%) and the federal budget deficit (57%) as major problems.
Looking ahead, Republicans and Democrats have very different predictions about the future of the economy: 73% of Republicans say economic conditions will be better a year from now, while 64% of Democrats say conditions will be worse.
Affordability of groceries and other needs
When it comes to the future prices of food and other goods, the public as a whole is more pessimistic than optimistic.
More Americans say the affordability of food and consumer goods will get worse rather than better over the course of the next year (43% vs. 37%). Another 19% say prices will stay about the same.
Expectations are also more negative than positive when it comes to the affordability of housing (42% vs. 29%) and health care (45% vs. 20%) in the coming year. There is again a partisan divide in these assessments, with Democrats much more likely than Republicans to say affordability will get worse.
Stark partisan divides on immigration policy
Republicans and Democrats are deeply divided on several of the 24 national problems asked about in our recent survey, but illegal immigration stands out: 73% of Republicans see it as a very big problem in the country today, while 23% of Democrats say the same. The partisan gap on this question has ranged between 40 and 50 points for most of the last decade.
Broad GOP support for Trump’s immigration agenda
A dot plot showing wide divisions between Republicans and Democrats on the Trump administration’s immigration efforts.
Immediately after returning to office in January, Trump signed executive orders declaring a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border and ramping up efforts to restrict immigration and deport people living in the country illegally.
Overall, more than half of U.S. adults support increasing deportations (59%) and growing the military’s presence at the southern border (58%). Fewer than half support cutting federal funds for cities and states that don’t help federal deportation efforts (47%) and suspending asylum applications from people seeking to live in the U.S. (44%).
Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to approve of several of the administration’s immigration policy actions:
Increasing deportations (86% vs. 33%)
Sending more military forces to the border (88% vs. 30%)
Cutting federal funding for cities and states if they don’t help deportation efforts (80% vs. 16%)
Suspending asylum applications (72% vs. 18%)
Birthright citizenship order seen more negatively than positively
Another of Trump’s executive orders aims to redefine birthright citizenship, arguing that children born in the United States are only citizens if at least one parent is a citizen or legal permanent resident.
Overall, 56% of U.S. adults disapprove of this executive order, while 43% approve. Strong disapproval of the order (40%) is more widespread than strong approval (23%). And on this question, too, Republicans and Democrats differ sharply: 72% of Republicans approve of the order, while an even larger majority of Democrats (84%) disapprove.
