Donald Trump’s favorability rating among the U.S. public has remained largely stable over the past year, although it has slipped modestly among Republicans, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.
The survey comes as the former president runs for the White House again in 2024 – and as he faces two criminal indictments. Trump may soon face a third indictment over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Pew Research Center conducted this survey to assess the public’s attitudes of U.S. political leaders. For this analysis, we surveyed 8,480 adults from July 10 to 16, 2023. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.
Here are the questions used for the analysis, along with responses, and its methodology.
Trump remains broadly unpopular with the public: 63% of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of the former president, while 35% view him favorably. A year ago, Trump’s rating stood at 60% unfavorable.
In the new survey, 66% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents have a very or mostly favorable opinion of Trump, while 32% have a very or mostly unfavorable view of him.
The share of Republicans who view Trump favorably has declined by 9 percentage points from last July, when 75% viewed him favorably and 24% viewed him unfavorably.
Related: Before midterms, Trump’s image among Republicans had become less positive
Democrats and Democratic leaners continue to express overwhelmingly negative opinions of Trump. About nine-in-ten Democrats (91%) view Trump unfavorably, including 78% who have a very unfavorable view. Just 8% have a favorable impression.
Views of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris
The public’s views of four other political leaders included in the survey, including President Joe Biden, also continue to be more unfavorable than favorable.
Six-in-ten Americans hold a very or mostly unfavorable opinion of Biden, while 39% view him favorably. Biden is viewed slightly more negatively than he was a year ago, when 55% held an unfavorable opinion of him.
Around six-in-ten Americans (59%) also view Vice President Kamala Harris unfavorably, while 36% express a favorable opinion of her. Views of Harris are more negative than they were last July, when 52% held an unfavorable opinion of her and 43% rated her favorably.
Democrats’ ratings of both Biden and Harris are somewhat less favorable than they were last year. Seven-in-ten Democrats view Biden favorably, down 5 points from July 2022. Roughly two-thirds of Democrats (66%) have a positive opinion of Harris, a 9-point decline during the same span.
Views of Kevin McCarthy and Chuck Schumer
Half of Americans hold an unfavorable view of Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, while a quarter view him favorably. A similar share (23%) have never heard of him. McCarthy has become better known over the past year: The share of adults who say they have never heard of him has declined 14 percentage points since then, and both favorable and unfavorable views of him have increased over this period.
About half of the public (49%) holds a very or mostly unfavorable view of Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, while 27% view him favorably and 22% have never heard of him. Unfavorable views of Schumer have increased 6 points over the last year (from 43% to 49%), as the share saying they have never heard of him has declined by 4 points (from 26% to 22%).
Note: Here are the questions used for the analysis, along with responses, and its methodology.
