Americans say Trump has the wrong priorities
Your weekly political data roundup for January 18, 2026
Dear readers,
This is my weekly roundup of new political data published over the last seven days.
This week: Protests over the ICE shooting in Minneapolis have continued, with Trump threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act in response. The administration’s attention elsewhere remains fixed on Venezuela, Greenland, and Iran, rather than the economy and cost of living. Democratic leadership in Congress sees this as an opportunity. A new CNN poll finds that a majority of Americans think Trump is focused on the wrong priorities entirely.
(Only 9% of Americans in a new Quinnipiac University poll out this week favor taking Greenland by military force.)
On deck: This week, I’ll publish the results from our first monthly poll of 2026! This release will have the usual tracking questions, a section on Venezuela, and a brief batch of subscriber-submitted questions on third parties and feelings about the broader political environment. (We finalized the questionnaire before ICE’s surge into Minneapolis and the protests following one of their agents killing of Renee Good.) There will be the usual Chart of the Week on Friday reacting to the week’s news, plus maybe a mid-week post on some fun small projects I’ve been working on in my spare time.
Let’s dig into what the polling says about Trump’s priorities.
I. Americans say Trump has the wrong priorities
A CNN poll released this week finds that 58% of Americans say Trump’s first year back in office has been a failure. It also finds a majority thinks he’s focused on the wrong issues, and over 60% say he’s not focused enough on the cost of living.
CNN reports that when people are asked to identify the country’s top problem today, Americans pick the economy by a nearly two-to-one margin over any other topic. And 64% say Trump has not done enough to reduce the cost of everyday goods. Just 36% say the president has the right priorities — down from 45% near the start of his term, and rivaling Joe Biden’s worst numbers during his term. Only one-third believe Trump cares about people like them, a new record low for the president.
But if you’re reading this and thinking that Democrats should only be focusing on the economy, since that’s what people say is their top issue (hellooo Chuck Schumer), check out this table showing the reasons people give for disapproving of Trump, in their own words:
If you ask Americans who disapprove of Trump why they don’t like the job he is doing as president, the biggest single policy they will mention is immigration and deportations. Democracy in general is the category with the highest response percentage. After that is “the economy” in general terms, then corruption, then foreign military involvement, then a three-way tie between governance in general, being “unpresidential” in general, and the cost of living specifically.
So if you’re optimizing for decreasing Trump’s disapproval rating, this table suggests hitting the president on the economy might be a less successful strategy than hitting him on immigration, corruption, or his general vibe as president. People say the economy is, in general, important to them, and they say Trump is failing on it, but they do not overwhelmingly cite it as a reason for disapproving of his presidency.
Note for anyone at CNN: I would love to see how independents and people who regret their vote for Trump break on this question, though I imagine you will need a bigger sample.
Anyway, this all echoes what I wrote back in September 2025 — at a time when centrist Democrats were busy attacking their own party for supposedly being out of step with voters on immigration. Remember that? The argument was that Democrats talked too much about progressive issues and not enough about kitchen-table concerns.
But the data told a different story. Back then, I pointed out that Republicans were actually more out of step with the public, especially on immigration. Voters wanted the border secured, sure — but they didn’t want mass deportations, family separations, or the kind of violent enforcement we’ve now seen play out. What they really wanted, and still want, is sensible, humane immigration policy, a functioning government, and lower prices for health care and groceries. Trump has given them Venezuela, Greenland, midnight ICE raids, and chaos in general.
What’s really striking is that Trump entered office claiming a mandate on immigration enforcement and prices (which many in the media were happy to give him). He has squandered whatever good will he had with the public through executive overreach, corruption, poor governance, and bad public policy.
Voters asked Trump for cheaper eggs. He has given them murder in the streets by government agents and a promise to take over Greenland.
II. What Strength In Numbers published last week
Last Sunday’s data roundup looked at how Republican support for military action in Venezuela jumped 22 points after Trump’s raid:
On Tuesday, I asked: How early is too early to look at midterm polls? The answer: early polls are directionally useful, but expect Democrats to gain ground between now and November.
I also compiled all the poll questions readers suggested we ask in 2026 — over 200 of them:
A special Thursday post responded to some of the conservative punditry about ICE’s use of force in Minneapolis, looking at polling on how Americans view specific actions of enforcement:
And Friday’s Chart of the Week looked at the impact Trump’s presidency is having on the share of Americans who identify with or lean toward the Republican Party. This percentage (40%) is now one point off of an all-time low for Republicans. (I talked about this on MS NOW with Chris Hayes Friday night.)
If you’re a frequent reader of Strength In Numbers, I’m confident you will get a lot of value out of a paid subscription. You don’t just get extra, high-quality content, including premium data features and trackers, but also direct access to me and a private community of data nerds working in polling and U.S. politics. A yearly subscription really helps the business grow:
III. Even more numbers!
A record 45% of Americans now identify as political independents: New High of 45% in U.S. Identify as Political Independents
CNN finds half of Americans think ICE is making cities less safe: Half of Americans think ICE is making American cities less safe, CNN poll finds
53% of voters say the Minneapolis shooting was not justified, per Quinnipiac: Majority Of Voters Think Fatal Shooting Of Minneapolis Woman By ICE Agent Was Not Justified
The gap among independents is -30 for Trump
More from YouGov on the ICE shooting: More Americans view the ICE shooting in Minnesota as unjustified than say it is justified
Republicans are split on whether ICE should prioritize arrests over safety: Republicans split on Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds
YouGov’s full rundown on ICE, Venezuela, Greenland, and Trump approval: The ICE shooting, Venezuela, Greenland, Trump approval, and the economy
85% of Americans oppose invading Greenland, per Chicago Council/Ipsos: Americans Oppose Using Military Force to Take Greenland
YouGov finds 73% oppose seizing Greenland with force: Most Americans remain opposed to seizing Greenland with military force
55% of Americans oppose the U.S. being “in charge” of Venezuela: Poll: Most Americans don’t want the U.S. to be ‘in charge’ of Venezuela
Mary Peltola leads Dan Sullivan 48-46% in new Alaska Senate poll: Alaska Survey Research Winter 2026 Report
Sabato’s Crystal Ball moves Alaska Senate to “Leans Republican” after Peltola’s entry: Alaska Senate Race Comes Onto the Competitive Board with Peltola’s Entry
IV. Polling update
Trump’s net job approval is -16.2, about where it’s been for the past month
The generic ballot is D+4.1, holding steady as Democrats maintain their lead
And that’s it for this week! Thanks for reading. Strength In Numbers will be back in your inbox on Wednesday.
Got more for next week? Email your links or add to the comments below!
Elliott
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Extra extra! I’m putting this at the very end to see who reads this far. I have put up my PUMA-level Trump approval map in interactive form here. Some other interactives live here. More on this soon. I will track how many people click on this link. Feel free to email me or @ me on Bluesky with your feedback.
The fact that only 58% of Americans believe that this past year has been a total cluster is our main problem…
I’m not surprised to see ICE at the top of the list, considering the recent horrors, but there are a dozen of these issues that would tank a normal administration. He’s such a fire hose of destruction that it’s hard to remember it all. Epstein at only 1%? What distraction will he throw at us next?