Donald Trump’s Policies Are Actually Popular

Donald Trump may have received tough criticism when he first implemented his policies in the White House, but polls show those policies are popular among Americans today.

Nearly 60 percent of registered voters say they miss Trump’s policies on the economy, immigration and crime, according to this month’s Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll. That includes majorities in all age groups, 45 percent of Black Americans, 35 percent of Democrats and 37 percent of liberals. The poll also found a shift in attitudes toward Trump, suggesting that Democrats may be changing their minds about the former president.

Trump’s policy changes were controversial even before he implemented them. When he first proposed building a border wall to curtail illegal immigration, the idea was widely ridiculed. But now it appears there’s growing support for his position. This week, for the first time, a majority of Americans said they support building a border wall.

“If I were advising President Biden, I would suggest focusing on articulating clear responses to these issues, highlighting contrasts and similarities as necessary,” Doug Kaplan, pollster and president of Kaplan Strategies, told Newsweek.

“It’s important to remember that a single policy favored by a Democrat doesn’t necessarily represent the whole,” he continued. “A more detailed understanding is required. The construction of the wall, for example, seems inevitable. It’s a matter of when, not if.”

A Monmouth University poll released Monday found that 53 percent of Americans back building a border wall, the largest support since Monmouth first started asking the question in 2015. More than 80 percent of Americans see illegal immigration as a serious problem—a view that ranged between 43 and 49 percent between 2015 and 2019.

“Public concern about illegal immigration is higher during President Joe Biden’s term than it was under the prior two administrations,” the polling center said in a press release.

Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, added that polling shows immigration has emerged as the defining issue of the 2024 presidential election. Both Trump and Biden will visit the border on Thursday.

The record-breaking Border Patrol encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border have caused a particular headache for Biden’s reelection campaign. Another poll, released by Monmouth last week, found the issue to be Biden’s weakest policy area, including among his fellow Democrats. More than 7 in 10 Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of immigration, including 4 in 10 Democrats.

Biden is increasingly moving closer to Trump on immigration. This month, new reports said the president was considering invoking executive action to restrict migrants’ ability to seek asylum in the U.S. if they crossed the border illegally, a measure reminiscent of actions that Trump took when he was in office.

Kaplan said he sees no reason why Biden shouldn’t take executive action on the border. He said the president needs to position himself as a president who unabashedly champions immigration reform through such measures, much as Bill Clinton did during his reelection campaign.

“Biden needs to have the guts to triangulate and become Clintonian,” Kaplan said. “Clinton literally [implemented] drastic Republican polices and he gained votes in ’96.”

And even though Democrats have long opposed Trump on immigration and other issues, 29 percent said they either “somewhat” or “strongly” approve of “the job that Donald Trump did as president,” according to the recent Harvard/Harris CAPS poll. Although 70 percent still disapprove of his presidency, this marks a shift from January 2020 when only 14 percent of Democrats approved of Trump’s job as president.

“Ultimately, the question is whether Biden is prepared to undertake significant, potentially transformative actions,” Kaplan said. “I suspect he fears the wackos in his party. They are not going anywhere. He needs to fear people in the suburbs.”

While voters may miss the Trump-era policies of his first term, other polling suggests that his new policy proposals may not be as popular. A YouGov poll from last month that asked Americans about 30 of Trump’s policy ideas found that only four had majority approval. Two of them focused on immigration: the “remain in Mexico” policy and the arrest and deportation of thousands of illegal immigrants. The other two were related to transgender Americans.

Among the proposals that saw the greatest opposition were cutting taxes on corporations, giving the president control over independent regulatory agencies like the Federal Trade Commission and abolishing the Department of Education.