New UMass Amherst poll shows growing opposition to Trump

Politics

The poll, released Monday, also shows a strong disapproval of the Democratic party.

“What one word would you use to describe President Donald Trump?”

This was one of the questions asked to 1,000 participants from around the country in a newly-released poll from the University of Massachusetts Amherst on Monday.

The polling team put together a word cloud of the most popular answers — from “Strong,” “Bold,” and “Patriot,” to “Arrogant,” “Corrupt,” and … “Orange.”

Besides the word cloud, the UMass Amherst poll showed that Trump’s approval rate sat at 44% while his disapproval rate was 51%.

“Three months into his second administration, the honeymoon might be over for President Donald Trump as a majority of Americans express disapproval of the job that he is doing,” said Tatishe Nteta, provost professor of political science at UMass Amherst and director of the poll, in a press release.

Additionally, participants were asked how they felt Trump handled numerous issues, from immigration to the economy to civil rights. Results from many other questions were divided further into gender, age, income, education, race, and party lines.

Ray la Raja, a professor of political science at UMass Amherst and co-director of the poll, said one of the main takeaways was that, based on the results, the world is still extremely polarized in political ideology but that some Trump voters are becoming more concerned.

Another finding la Raja mentioned was that many of the Project 2025 agenda items are not popular among the public. For instance, according to the poll, 62% of respondents opposed the firing of federal workers in place of political appointees while 18% supported it.

“He’s got to contend with that if he’s going to keep pushing ahead,” la Raja told Boston.com.

The Democratic Party also seemed to be unpopular among respondents: 62% noted they disapproved of the party, with a large 40% strongly disapproving, compared to the 29% who approved.

la Raja said a party tends to be more “demoralized” after losing an election and voters may have felt as though the Democratic party “failed them.” He said he also chalks it up to the party not being united under one strong leader or by having consistent views.

“I think [moderates] might be blaming the loss on the Democratic Party being too far left, and Democrats probably think the party didn’t stick to its guns enough and be bold in some of its policies,” la Raja said.

A majority of participants opposed Trump’s handling of the inflation crisis as well as the job market, a trend that could benefit Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections if the administration does not abate the issues, la Raja said.

la Raja said it is unclear whether the administration will change course based on results, which are similar to what other polls of comparable scope have found.

“Trump feels very confident, and he’s surrounded himself by people who tend to agree with him,” la Raja said. “Under the usual scenarios, politicians would say, ‘We’ve got to pull back.’”