More than 60 percent of Americans say the country is moving in the wrong direction, mostly due to President Trump’s actions since returning to the White House in January, according to a survey from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).
Sixty-two percent of respondents said they think the nation is on the wrong track, including 92 percent of Democrats and 71 percent of independents. Only 24 percent of Republicans said they feel the same way.
Most respondents said they believe the Trump administration’s cuts in federal funding for health care, universities and research institutions and the administration’s new tariffs have all gone too far. PRRI found that independents’ views on these cuts, as well as the increase in funding going toward Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), are more closely aligned with Democratic respondents.
“Amid unprecedented actions, most Americans, including political independents, believe the Trump administration has gone too far,” PRRI President Robert P. Jones said in a statement. “A growing majority of Americans, including two-thirds of independents, now view the president as a dangerous dictator, but most Republicans continue to approve of Trump’s actions.”
The overall number is lower than PRRI’s poll from September 2024, near the end of President Biden’s time in office. At that time, 70 percent of Americans thought the country was heading in the wrong direction, including 41 percent of Democrats and 94 percent of Republicans.
The majority of respondents also said the U.S. was headed in the wrong direction on the economy (65 percent), how the federal government functions (65 percent), dealing with immigrants who entered the country illegally (57 percent) and dealing with other countries (60 percent).
The survey also found that most Americans aren’t happy with either major party: 60 percent of respondents said they view Democrats unfavorably, and 57 percent felt the same about Republicans.
This echoes recent polling from Gallup, which found that 58 percent of Americans viewed Republicans unfavorably, while 61 percent held an unfavorable view of Democrats.
The PRRI survey was conducted Sept. 12-15 and included 5,543 respondents living in all 50 states and an additional 412 recruited by Ipsos using opt-in survey panels to increase the sample sizes in smaller states. The margin of error is 1.79 percentage points.
Source: The Hill