May 2, 2025
Overall, 57% of adults feel Donald Trump has gone too far in using presidential power to achieve his goals. About 3 in 10 feel his use of executive powers is about right and 1 in 10 think he’s not using them enough to progress his agenda.
Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to say Trump has gone too far in his use of presidential power. Sixty-two percent of Republicans think his use of executive powers is about right.
Compared to other branches of government, a larger share of the public feels that the executive has overstepped its power. About half say the president has too much power, up from a third who felt that way a year ago in March 2024. About 3 in 10 think the same about Congress, the Supreme Court, and federal judges.
Partisans are wary of presidential power when the other party is in charge. Last March with Democratic control of the White House, 46% of Republicans said the president holds too much power and only 16% of Democrats agreed. Now that Trump is president, most Democrats say the president has too much power and most Republicans say the office has the right level of power.
Democrats’ concerns about institutional power extend beyond the presidency. Last year, Republicans held a majority in the House while Democrats controlled the Senate. At the time, about 4 in 10 of both Democrats and Republicans said Congress held too much power. Now, with a Republican majority in both houses of Congress, Democrats are more likely to say Congress has too little power than the right amount or too much power.
Compared to a year ago, fewer Democrats feel the Supreme Court holds too much power. Last year, 58% of Democrats said the Supreme Court had too much power and only a quarter of Republicans agreed. Today, about a third of Democrats think the court has too much power while the views of Republicans have remained about the same.
Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to say that federal judges have too much power on the way government operates.
The nationwide poll was conducted April 17-21, 2025 using the AmeriSpeak® Panel, the probability-based panel of NORC at the University of Chicago. Online and telephone interviews using landlines and cell phones were conducted with 1,260 adults. The overall margin of sampling error is +/- 3.9 percentage points.
- Suggested Citation: AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. “Many feel Trump has gone too far in using presidential power to achieve goals” (April 2025). https://apnorc.org/projects/many-feel-trump-has-gone-too-far-in-using-presidential-power-to-achieve-goals/
