Public Religion Research Institute Chart
Baptist News Global | Oct. 23, 2025
A significant majority of Americans believe President Donald Trump is leading the nation in the wrong direction and disagree with his handling of the economy, immigration and foreign policy, according to a new annual survey by Public Religion Research Institute.
According to PRRI’s American Values study released Oct. 22, nearly two-thirds (62%) of Americans believe the nation is headed “in the wrong direction” overall, while 65% feel that way about the economy and how the government is performing. A majority (57%) say the administration is on the wrong track in its handling of undocumented immigrants.
The survey conducted in collaboration with the Brookings Institution found 56% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s performance as president while minorities approve of his handling of the border (44%), immigration (43%) and foreign policy (30%).
“Trump’s favorability mirrors his job approval: 40% favorable vs. 58% unfavorable,” the report states.
Most Americans (54%) agree with the statement, “What President Trump is doing to the federal government is an assault on constitutional checks and balances and the rule of law,” while a smaller share (43%) say the changes are a “long-overdue correction of disastrous policies pushed by elites at the expense of ordinary Americans.”
Public Religion Research Institute Chart
Increased partisan differences
The survey captured a significant increase in partisan differences compared to past previous administrations, including a much wider separation between independents and Republicans than in past years.
“In this survey, over and over, we find independents tend to be closer to Democrats than to Republicans,” PRRI President Robert P. Jones said during an event to preview the study. “There’s a bigger gap between independents and Republicans than there is between independents and Democrats. The gaps are still there, but the gaps are asymmetric.”
But the chasm between Democrats and Republicans also is getting wider, Jones warned, with 60-plus percentage points separating the parties on many critical issues.
For example, nearly all Democrats (92%) and a strong majority of independents (71%) believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, compared to 24% of Republicans who say that.
“In 2024, 94% of Republicans, 70% of independents and 41% of Democrats said the same,” Jones noted.
Public Religion Research Institute Chart
Currently, six in 10 Americans say the president has gone too far in cutting programs like the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid and Medicare, compared to 28% who say the cuts “seem about right” and 9% who prefer further cuts. Most Democrats (90%) and independents (67%) agree the changes have gone too far, versus a quarter of Republicans.
On the question of Trump’s job performance, 86% of Republicans approve compared to 32% of independents and 8% of Democrats.
Stark differences continued over the view of the changes Trump is making to the federal government. Most Democrats (87%) and independents (62%) believe the changes are negative, while a significant majority of Republicans (82%) describe them as positive and necessary.
Partisanship also plays a major part in the issues Americans consider the most pressing, PRRI found. “Aside from inflation, Republicans are most likely to rank immigration (56%) and crime (53%) as critical issues. Majorities of both Democrats and independents rate the protection of basic rights such as free speech (65% vs. 52%) and health care (64% vs. 52%) as critical issues.”
Religious differences
PRRI found notable differences along religious lines in the survey conducted between mid-August and mid-September.
When asked about the president’s job performance, Black Protestants (77%), the religiously unaffiliated (77%), members of non-Christian religions (76%), Hispanic Catholics (71%) and Jewish Americans (70%) said Trump is not doing a good job. However, white evangelicals (76%), white Catholics (57%) and white Mainline Protestants (57%) more often approved of the job Trump is doing in the White House.
Trump’s favorability ratings also vary according to the religious affiliation of respondents, the PRRI study explains: “Among religious groups, Trump’s favorability is highest among white evangelical Protestants (72%), followed by 55% of white Mainline/non-evangelical Protestants, and 54% of white Catholics. These groups have become more favorable toward Trump since 2016 (61%, 46% and 43%, respectively).”
Minorities of Hispanic Protestants (28%), Jewish Americans (27%) and other non-Christians (24%) view Trump favorably. Interestingly, Trump’s favorability among Black Protestants increased since 2016 from 7% to 19%, and from 14% to 25% among Hispanic Catholics.
And as before, PRRI found most people it classifies as “adherents” (74%) and “sympathizers” (64%) of Christian nationalism have a favorable opinion of Trump, compared with four in 10 classified as “skeptics” and only 9% of “rejecters.”
The study found most Americans share a vision of the nation as one that values religious diversity and equal rights for all people instead of one focused on a shared homeland and heritage, as Trump and his allies promote.
“Most Americans (78%) agree ‘America is best understood as a nation built around the idea that all people, regardless of the circumstances of their birth or station in life, have equal rights and freedoms,’ including 70% of Republicans,” the report says. “Just 19% believe that ‘America is best understood as a nation comprised of people with a shared heritage and homeland.’”
Republicans and white evangelicals are far more likely than other Americans to want the country to be comprised primarily of Christians. And most white evangelicals believe discrimination against white Americans (63%) and Christians (65%) has become equally problematic as discrimination against other groups.
Public Religion Research Institute Chart
‘Stranger in my country’
A notable change came in response to the statement, “Things have changed so much that I often feel like a stranger in my own country,” which PRRI has included since 2016, Jones said.
From 2016 to 2022, Republicans were the most likely to agree with the statement, but with the dawn of Trump’s second term, it is now Democrats who say they feel like strangers in America.
“What’s interesting about this is we have this through Trump’s first term and even then Republicans were much more likely than Democrats to say they felt like a stranger in their own country,” Jones said. “It’s not until we get the reelection and Trump’s second term that these numbers flip. Now we see it’s Democrats saying things have changed so much they feel like a stranger in their own country, and Republicans for the first time since we’ve been asking this question are way down to only about three in 10.”