Understanding Americans' ideology, part 2
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 political ideology, Donald Trump, Chuck Schumer, Democratic Socialism, MAGA, cults, climate change, the Department of Homeland Security, weather forecasts, police brutality, illegal immigration, a possible government shutdown, and the Winter Olympics.
Last time, I shared new polling data on how Americans place themselves on a seven-point ideological scale: far-left, left, center-left, center, center-right, right, and far-right.
Today I want to follow that up by looking at another question from the same survey: YouGov asked Americans how they rate the political viewpoints of famous politicians.
Among the politicians most likely to be described as having far-left politics, among those included in the survey, are Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Zohran Mamdani. Donald Trump and JD Vance are the most likely to be described as having far-right politics.
Barack Obama and Joe Biden are both seen as broadly on the left, but are less likely to be described as far-left than Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, and Mamdani. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and George W. Bush are both seen as being on the right, but are less likely to be described as far-right than Trump and Vance are.
Several politicians with reputations as moderates, or for clashes with members of their own parties, are even less likely to be described as far-left or far-right. For example, 22% of Americans describe Andrew Cuomo’s politics as either center (11%) or center-left (11%), far more than the 7% who call him far-left. 29% describe Mitt Romney as either center (11%) or center-right (18%), compared to only 5% who call him far-right.
Americans don’t agree on how to characterize many of these politicians’ viewpoints. For example, 50% of Americans say Donald Trump is far-right, while 20% say he is “right” and 7% that he is center-right.
But overwhelming majorities of Americans who are left of center describe Trump as far-right: 84% of those who are far-left describe him that way, as do 85% of those who are “left” and 83% of those who are center-left.
In contrast, Americans whose politics are in the center or on the right are much less likely to call Trump far-right. 39% of centrists say Trump is far-right, as do 34% of those on the center-right and 28% of those whose views are right wing but not far-right or center-right. 50% of Americans who are far-right themselves call Trump far-right.
There are also interesting differences in how Americans view the politics of Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer: Half of all Republicans (49%) say Schumer’s political viewpoint is far-left, while just 8% of Democrats say so. Among far-left Americans, as many say Schumer’s politics are right-of-center (14%) as say he’s far-left (13%).
Click here to see interactive versions of these charts, where you can click to see details on all 24 politicians YouGov asked about.
YouGov also asked Americans where they put the political viewpoint of Democratic Socialists and MAGA supporters. Overall, 45% of Americans describe Democratic Socialists as far-left, and 49% describe MAGA supporters as far-right.
Americans with left-of-center politics — the center-left, left, and far-left — are less likely than those whose views are on the right to say Democratic Socialists are far-left, and more likely to say their views are left without being far-left or center-left. Conversely, Americans with views on the right are less likely than those on the left to say MAGA supporters are far-right.
However, Americans who are far-left themselves are more likely than those who are either center-left or are left without being far-left or center-left to call Democratic Socialists far-left, and Americans who are far-right are more likely than other rightists to call MAGA supporters far-right.
What do you think these results say about Americans and politics? Sound off in the comments!
See the full results of this survey
In the meantime, check out other YouGov polling below!
Charting opinions
Even though many Americans feel anxiety or grief over climate change, and many say they factor it into their life decisions, few Americans think they will personally experience a large amount of harm because of climate change in the next 50 years. Only 16% think it will cause a large amount of harm to them personally during that time; larger shares think it will significantly harm their local community (21%), the U.S. (34%), and the world (41%). (Jamie Ballard)
How Americans feel about 10 recent Department of Homeland Security social media posts
To understand how Americans feel about content shared by the DHS on social media, we presented survey respondents with a selection of 10 posts made to X by @DHSgov between June 2025 and January 2026. The posts that we selected are related to immigration and include images or memes. We then asked whether they approve or disapprove of each post and calculated each post’s net approval by subtracting the share who approve of it from the share who disapprove of it.
Americans are more likely to disapprove than approve of all 10 of the posts shown to them in the survey, though the extent of disapproval varies significantly depending on the post. The post viewed most positively has a net approval of -1, while the least popular post has a net approval of -34. (Taylor Orth)
Today more Americans support than oppose abolishing ICE
More Americans support than oppose abolishing ICE (46% vs. 41%). This marks a slight increase from earlier this month, when three YouGov polls found that the share of Americans who supported eliminating ICE as a federal agency was roughly equal to the share who opposed it: 46% to 43% in one poll, 42% vs. 45% in another, and 45% vs. 45% in a third.
Democrats overwhelmingly support eliminating ICE (76% vs. 15%), as do nearly half of Independents (47% vs. 35%). Most Republicans (73%) continue to oppose abolishing ICE. Only 19% of Republicans support eliminating the agency, but that’s a higher level than in any of the polls from earlier this month. (Alexander Rossell Hayes)
Two-thirds of Americans think the average person is susceptible to cult recruitment
Majorities of Americans say that political groups (68%), religious groups (64%), and spiritual groups (62%) very or somewhat often engage in coercive or cult-like behavior. Majorities say the same about each of social media platforms (56%) and online groups (56%); 48% say this about multi-level marketing businesses. (Jamie Ballard)
Quick takes
Forecasts: 38% of Americans — including 30% of 18- to 29-year-olds, 34% of 30- to 44-year-olds, 42% of 45- to 64-year-olds, and 45% of those 65 and older — say news reports about expected storms usually overstate their severity; only 10% of Americans say news reports understate storms’ severity
ICE: 58% of Americans say the tactics used by ICE are too forceful while 23% say they’re about right and 10% say they’re not forceful enough
Problems: 41% of Americans — including 65% of Democrats and 15% of Republicans — say police brutality is a very serious problem in the U.S., while 35% of Americans — including 8% of Democrats and 68% of Republicans — say illegal immigration is a very serious problem
Shutdown: 41% of Americans — including 68% of Democrats and 15% of Republicans — say Democrats in Congress should hold out for cuts in funding to the Department of Homeland Security before agreeing to a funding bill to avert a government shutdown
Due process: 15% of Americans say people detained by ICE are always given due process, while 13% say this happens usually, 13% say sometimes, 24% say rarely, and 21% never
Olympics: 7% of Americans say they’ll watch Winter Olympics events every day, 17% will watch lots of events when they can, 33% will watch a few events, and 30% won’t watch any
Elsewhere
Polling partnerships
The Economist + YouGov on falling confidence in ICE, a new low for Trump’s support from Independents, plunging opinion of congressional Democrats, and desire for Trump to deprioritize foreign policy
Yahoo + YouGov on parents posting pictures of their children online
Polling abroad
How often do Britons rewatch TV shows? (YouGov UK)
Polling in the press
Opinion | ICE’s Brutality Is Its Weakness (New York Times)
Support for Abolishing ICE Is Surging Among Republicans (Time)
Trump approval among independent voters hits new low: Poll (The Hill)
The ICE shootings are a tipping point (Strength In Numbers | G. Elliott Morris’s Substack)
Expert explains different levels of family estrangement and what factors play a role (CBS News)
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Carl Bialik contributed to this newsletter.
Very enlightening regarding how different groups viewed political figures. I found it really interesting that all of the groups right of center more or less thought Trump was in their group. I guess when you’re committed to your guy, you put on the rose colored glasses and explain away what doesn’t fit. I guess that helps explain how he’s holding at 40% approval.