A busy week of polling data on ICE, Venezuela, and more
Welcome to YouGov's newsletter The Surveyor, with new polling data, insights, and charts on politics, life, and other topical issues — from our U.S. News team.
Today, we’re spotlighting surveys about ICE, the shooting of Renee Good, Greenland, Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, the EPA, credit cards, tariffs, AI, days of the week, Dr. Seuss, and newspaper comics.
It’s been a busy couple of weeks.
There have been ICE raids in Minneapolis (where I live) and military raids into Venezuela, protests in Iran and saber-rattling over Greenland, plus all the usual stuff that counts as news in normal weeks: the state of the economy, AI, the 2026 midterm elections, and more.
Add to that my 11-month-old spending a week at home with Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease and it’s easy to get overwhelmed with everything happening. So I wanted to take a step back — for my benefit as well as yours — and round up exactly what YouGov’s recent polling says about the big events in the news.
And if it’s all getting a bit too much, read to the end for some light-hearted polling about Dr. Seuss and newspaper comic strips.
ICE and Minnesota protests
The surge of federal immigration officers to Minnesota, and the shooting of Minneapolis resident Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, has been huge news. 67% of Americans say they’ve heard a lot about Good’s killing, while 23% have heard a little. Democrats are most likely to have heard a lot (80%), but so have majorities of Independents (61%) and Republicans (61%).
This is extremely high awareness of a news story. An analysis of YouGov polling for Yahoo! News found that this was the news event that the most people had heard a lot about since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022. (63% had heard a lot about the shooting, according to the Yahoo/YouGov poll.)
Strikingly, 70% of Americans say they’ve seen video footage of the shooting.
Americans are more likely to say the shooting was unjustified than justified (53% vs. 28%). 53% of Americans say Ross should face criminal charges, and 30% say he shouldn’t.
ICE itself is fairly unpopular, with majorities of Americans saying it needs several major changes and nearly half supporting abolishing it.
52% of Americans have a very or somewhat unfavorable view of ICE, compared to 39% who do about the FBI, 33% about the Federal Emergency Management Agency, 16% about NASA, and 11% about the National Weather Service.
Two-thirds (68%) of Americans say there should be stricter standards for ICE agents, 69% say they should be required to wear uniforms while making arrests, and 55% say ICE agents should not be allowed to conceal their identities with masks.
Americans are closely divided over abolishing ICE, with 42% saying they would strongly or somewhat support abolishing ICE and 45% opposing this. In 2019, when YouGov asked about abolishing ICE and replacing it with a different agency, 33% of Americans supported this and 43% opposed it.
See much more YouGov polling about ICE in the full article by Alexander Rossell Hayes and Taylor Orth.
Greenland and Venezuela
Americans overwhelmingly oppose the U.S. using military force to take control of Greenland, with 8% supporting this and 73% opposed. Forcibly taking Greenland is opposed by 87% of Democrats, 73% of Independents, and 60% of Republicans.
Buying Greenland is less unpopular, but still unpopular, with 28% supporting this and 45% opposed.
But will taking Greenland, whether with soldiers or dollars, remain unpopular if it happens? Our polling on the U.S. using military force to invade Venezuela provides a recent example of what happens to public opinion when a possible action becomes real.
YouGov polls throughout the fall of 2025 found that less than 20% of Americans supported invading Venezuela. Less than one-third of Republicans supported such an invasion in September and October. By December, as war threats became louder, Republican support rose to 43% — still well below 50%.
After the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in the early morning of January 3, support for using military force to invade Venezuela shot up. In our most recent poll, 74% of Republicans support invading Venezuela — nearly double their support before the attack.
Invading Venezuela remains unpopular overall, with only 35% of Americans in support and 51% opposed. But it’s no longer the overwhelmingly unpopular action it was as a hypothetical action last year.
Americans are more supportive of putting Maduro on trial than they are of a military invasion, with 50% strongly or somewhat approving and 28% disapproving.
But only 37% of Americans think removing corrupt leadership from power was a major reason for the U.S. intervention. That’s less than the 53% who say increasing U.S. access to oil was a major reason, and the 41% who say preventing drug trafficking was. Similar shares of Americans say major reasons for the intervention were increasing U.S. power and distracting Americans from domestic political issues.
And going forward, only 6% of Americans say the U.S. should decide the future leadership of Venezuela, while 78% say the Venezuelan people should.
See much more YouGov polling about Venezuela in the full article by Carl Bialik and Taylor Orth, and about Greenland in the full article by Alexander Rossell Hayes.
Green Eggs and Ham and strips that once ran
On a lighter note, YouGov also recently surveyed Americans about famed children’s author and illustrator Dr. Seuss. Seuss is extremely popular, with 77% of Americans viewing him very or somewhat favorably while 9% view him unfavorably and only 14% don’t have an opinion.
Several other children’s authors we asked about are less popular, or at least less well-known, including Shel Silverstein (33% favorable), Beverly Cleary (31%), Eric Carle (20%), Mauriece Sendak (19%). Dr. Seuss is also much more popular than Theodor Geisel (22% favorable) despite being the same person.
See our full poll about Dr. Seuss, including questions about his books and his characters. We also previously wrote about children’s literature in the July 11, 2025 edition of this newsletter.
And as long as we’re talking about beloved things from Americans’ childhoods, let’s talk about newspaper comics. 14% of Americans say they read comic strips at least weekly, either in print or online. That’s a much smaller number than the 56% of Americans who say that as children, they read comics weekly or more.
YouGov asked Americans their thoughts about 20 notable comic strips, and found generally positive feelings. No more than 12% have an unfavorable opinion about any of the 20 comics (12% have unfavorable views of each of Dick Tracy and Dilbert — by Scott Adams, who died this week).
The best-liked of the comics are Garfield (84% favorable) and Peanuts (82%), followed by Calvin and Hobbes (63%), Blondie (59%), and The Family Circus (58%).
More than two-thirds of Americans didn’t have an opinion about each of seven comic strips: Bloom County (70% don’t know), Foxtrot (71%), Zits (71%), Pearls Before Swine (74%), Baby Blues (75%), Mary Worth (72%), and Pluggers (85%).
See the full survey about comic strips.
Quick takes
EPA: 39% of Americans say the Environmental Protection Agency should prioritize the benefits of reducing air pollution, 7% say it should prioritize the costs to businesses of complying with regulations, and 41% say it should prioritize both equally
APY: 64% of Americans support a cap this year on credit card interest rates at 10% per year, while 13% oppose this
SCOTUS: 19% of Americans expect the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down Donald Trump’s tariffs, and 46% expect the court to let them stand
AI: 37% of Americans expect that when AI tools recommend products, they will prioritize their business interests, while 10% expect they’ll prioritize users’ interests and 21% think they’ll prioritize both equally
TGIF: 82% of Americans have a very or somewhat favorable view of Fridays, higher than the share with favorable views of Sundays (78%), Thursdays (73%), Wednesdays (66%), Tuesdays (51%), and Mondays (27%), but just behind the share with favorable views of Saturdays (83%)
Elsewhere
Polling partnerships
The Economist + YouGov on the ICE shooting in Minnesota, military action in Venezuela, Greenland, approval of Donald Trump, and Republican sentiment about the economy
Polling abroad
Polling in the press
Trump’s Fight With Minnesota Is About More Than Immigration (New York Times)
What Comes After the Protests (New Yorker)
Trump has made ICE a 70-30 issue — for Democrats (Strength In Numbers | G. Elliott Morris’s Substack)
California Launches Investigation Into Grok’s Nonconsensual Sexual Images (Gizmodo)
Thou Shalt Not Lie (Lyman Stone | Substack)
Learn more and get in touch
Sign up to participate in our polls and share your opinions on the people, companies, and issues that shape your life and the world
For more polling data and insights, visit our website or follow us on X, Threads, and Bluesky.
Have questions or feedback?
If you have a press or media inquiry, email uspress@yougov.com
If you have an idea for a future survey, share it here
If you are a panelist and have questions, contact support here
For information on privacy, please read our privacy notice
Carl Bialik contributed to this newsletter.
Nice Seussish title for the graph! I learned to read with those books.