A poll released Friday shows a record 62 percent of Americans say the federal government has too much power — the highest share since Gallup first began tracking this trend in 2001.
In 2024, a little more than half (51 percent) of Americans surveyed said they believed the federal government had too much power. Among Democrats, the percentage holding this belief surged from 25 percent to 66 percent this year, when President Trump returned to the White House.
Republicans trended in the opposite direction, though to a lesser degree. Seventy-five percent of Republicans surveyed last year believed the government had too much power. This year, that number dropped to 58 percent.
The poll marks the first time since 2007 that Democrats have been more likely than Republicans to say they believe the federal government has too much power.
Previous polls indicate that the partisan shifts corresponded to changes in presidential administrations, with both sides more likely to say the federal government had too much power if a president of the opposite party was in office.
In the previous Trump administration, only 44 percent to 50 percent of Democratic respondents expressed concern over federal overreach.
Meanwhile, between 74 percent and 82 percent of Republicans said they believed the federal government had too much power during the administrations of former Presidents Obama and Biden.
The poll also found a slight decrease in the percentage of Republicans who said they believe the government “is trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses,” down from 79 percent last year to 74 percent.
The percentage of Democrats who said they believe the government is doing too much increased slightly from 29 percent to 34 percent.
A previous Gallup survey found less than a quarter of Americans viewed the government even somewhat positively, with 61 percent of respondents expressing a “somewhat” or “negative” view of it.
Another recent poll, conducted by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, showed that a majority of Americans believed Trump is exerting more power than his predecessors.
Source: The Hill