Shake it like a polarized public
Welcome to YouGov's weekly newsletter The Surveyor, with new polling data, insights, and charts on politics, life, and other topical issues — from our U.S. News team.
This week, we're spotlighting surveys about Donald Trump's budget, Qatar's jet, passports, supernatural forces, cheating in relationships, scientific research, and dentists.
Trump's budget is somewhat unpopular and very polarizing
With President Donald Trump's "big beautiful bill" working its way through Congress, YouGov and the Economist asked Americans what they thought about Trump's budget. Overall, 36% of U.S. adult citizens say they support Trump's budget, while 43% oppose it, and 21% have no opinion.
This reflects strong opposition to the budget among Democrats (7% support / 80% oppose) and nearly equally strong support among Republicans (76% / 8%).
Support and opposition to Trump's budget now are pretty similar to where they were a month ago, even as details of the budget have been in flux during congressional negotiations.
We also asked Americans whether they believe Trump's budget will increase or decrease the U.S. budget deficit. As one would expect, Democrats are more likely to say Trump's budget will raise the deficit and Republicans to say it will decrease the deficit. But Democrats are more united in their negative view of the bill than Republicans are in their positive view: 61% of Democrats say the budget will raise the deficit, compared to 40% of Republicans who say it will reduce it.
There's a similar imbalance on the question of the Trump administration accepting the gift of a luxury jet from Qatar's royal family to serve as a new Air Force One. Overall, 29% of U.S. adult citizens say this is a good idea and 51% say it's a bad idea. 79% of Democrats say it's a bad idea, while 57% of Republicans say it's a good idea.
More of your poll ideas
A few weeks ago, I asked you for suggested questions to include in YouGov polls, and then featured the results a week later. But there were a few of your suggestions that we ran out of time and space to run, and I didn't want to leave those great ideas hanging out there.
Note, if you're comparing the results below with the charts from two weeks ago, the overall figures for Donald Trump's approval will be different because these questions came from a different poll. It's normal for a number like Trump's approval to oscillate up and down from week-to-week. The important thing here is not the topline, but the crosstabs — which groups have relatively higher or lower Trump approval?
Henry wrote: "A crosstab on whether [the] respondent owns a passport or not might be interesting."
Americans with passports are more likely to disapprove of Trump than those without passports — or that Americans without passports are more likely to be unsure about Trump.
Andrew wrote: "I’m interested in a crosstab not only by religion, but how confident people are that God/Gods exist."
Americans who say God definitely exists approve of Trump by a 10 point margin: 50% strongly or somewhat approve vs. 40% strongly or somewhat disapprove. The more Americans doubt the existence of God — from saying God "probably exists" to "probably does not exist" to "definitely does not exist" — the less likely they are to approve of Trump.
But we did Andrew one better and asked a battery of questions about belief in various religious and supernatural forces and entities. People who say the Devil definitely exists are even more pro-Trump than the group who says God does, with 56% approval and 34% disapproval. (67% of Americans who say God definitely exists say the Devil definitely exists, so there's a lot of overlap here but not perfect overlap.) There's a similar relationship between Trump support and belief in the concepts of "life after death" and "supernatural forces." But the relationship between Trump approval and belief in ghosts is weaker — while Americans who don't believe in ghosts are more likely to disapprove of Trump than those who do, similar shares approve of Trump among those who say ghosts definitely exist (43%) and those who say they definitely don't (40%).
Charting opinions
Half of Americans say they’ve been cheated on; one-third say they've been the cheater
Vast majorities of Americans say they have gone on a date (88%), been in love (88%), had sex (87%), and been in a romantic relationship (86%). Nearly as many have been told “I love you” by a romantic interest (83%) and about as many have told a romantic interest that they were in love with them (82%). Around three-quarters (77%) of Americans have broken up with someone and about as many (74%) have been broken up with. (Jamie Ballard)
Quick takes
Send it back: 51% of Americans say they would send back a restaurant dish that tasted bad; 32% would send back a dish that was slightly different from their order; 80% would send back a dish completely different from their order
Cancer: 60% of Americans say federal funding for cancer research should be increased, while 23% say it should stay the same and 5% say it should decrease
University research: 44% of Americans say federal funding for scientific research at universities should be increased, while 24% say it should stay the same and 16% say it should be decreased
Dentist: An overwhelming 95% of Americans say they typically brush their teeth right before going to the dentist
Elsewhere
Polling partnerships
The Economist + YouGov on the federal budget, immigration, and Donald Trump's businesses
Polling abroad
Who thinks Keir Starmer is anti-immigration? (YouGov UK)
Polling in the press
Crunch time for the budget bill (Economist)
White House ‘looking at’ ending habeas corpus — but most voters want it, poll finds (Miami Herald)
Trump has called for a strategic bitcoin reserve. How it would work. (Yahoo Finance)
Nearly a third of Americans aren't filling their prescriptions because of high costs (KRDO | Stacker)
Expert content juries preferred for social media moderation, survey finds (Phys.org)
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This newsletter is compiled by David Montgomery and Taylor Orth