Americans have more negative than positive views of all top political leaders, new polling found.
According to a survey, released Tuesday by Pew Research Center, as the United States barrels toward a government shutdown, the public doesn’t currently have favorable views of any leader, including President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and congressional leaders from both parties.
More than half, 58%, of respondents said they have an unfavorable view of Trump, with 40% who said they have a favorable view of the commander in chief. Similarly, the vice president receives support from 40% of respondents while 51% say they view Vance unfavorably. Another 8% say they have never heard of Vance.
While the president and vice president don’t earn entirely favorable scores from the American public, they largely are well-known across the country. Congressional leaders are less recognizable but still pull in negative-leaning ratings from respondents, the survey found.
According to the poll, 38% of respondents have an unfavorable view of Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and 25% have a favorable view of the House leader. Still, 36% of Americans say they have never heard of Johnson.
His counterpart in the Senate, Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is even less well-known. Over half, 56%, say they have never heard of Thune. Of those who do know the Republican senator, 26% have an unfavorable view and just 16% have a favorable view.
Democrats don’t score any better, Pew found.
According to the survey, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is relatively unknown among the public, with 45% who say they have never heard of him. Just 24% say they have a favorable view of the New York Democrat and 30% have an unfavorable view.
In the upper chamber, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is even less liked. Exactly half, 50%, of all respondents said they have an unfavorable view of the fifth-term Democrat, and 21% of the public said they have a favorable view of him. However, Schumer comes in as the best known of the four top lawmakers.
The way Americans view each of the congressional leaders aligns with their party affiliation for the most part.
Most Democrat respondents have an unfavorable view of Johnson and Thune, while Republicans view them favorably. Likewise, most Republicans view Jeffries and Schumer unfavorably, while Democrats give them less critical ranks.
However, there’s a split among Democrats. Democratic-leaning respondents were much more critical of Schumer than they were of Jeffries and Pew noted Schumer’s favorability has declined in recent years.
This survey was the first time in more than a decade of Pew’s surveys where more Democrats disapprove than approve of their leaders in Congress. It shows that since 2023, Democrats are more critical and less happy with the job their party leaders are doing on Capitol Hill.
The Pew survey was conducted Sept. 22-28 among 3,445 respondents. It has a margin of error of +/- 1.9 percentage points.