January 15,2025
As the Senate begins confirmation hearings, many adults are uncertain about Donald Trump’s nominees for some key positions.
The public does not have much confidence that the Department of Justice or the FBI will act in a fair and nonpartisan manner during Trump’s second term. The public is also not convinced about the impartiality of the United States Supreme Court. Only about a fifth are extremely or very confident that these institutions will be fair and impartial during the next administration.
While 4 in 10 Republicans have confidence in the objectivity of the Supreme Court, they have less faith in the impartiality of the country’s law enforcement agencies. Few Democrats have confidence in the Supreme Court, the FBI or the DOJ.
Views on some of Trump’s nominees for cabinet and other senior positions remain divided along partisan lines. Similar to the results of an AP-NORC poll conducted in December 2024, around a third of the public disapproves of Trump’s key nominees, and a similar share don’t know enough to have an opinion.
Democrats are much more likely to disapprove of all of Trump’s nominees than independents and Republicans.
The nationwide poll was conducted January 9-13, 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 1,147 adults. The overall margin of sampling error is +/- 3.7 percentage points.
- Suggested Citation: AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. “Ahead of confirmation hearings, few approve of Trump cabinet and senior position appointees” (January 2025). [https://apnorc.org/projects/ahead-of-confirmation-hearings-many-are-skeptical-about-some-of-trumps-key-nominees/]
