Should Democrats in Congress compromise with Trump? Here's what Americans said in poll

Brendan Rascius, The Charlotte Observer on Feb 12, 2025

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A majority of Americans want Democrats in Congress to find common ground and work with President Donald Trump during his second term, according to new polling.

Plus, most don’t think congressional Democrats are up to the task of meaningfully opposing the president anyway, the latest CBS News/YouGov poll found.

The poll — conducted with 2,175 U.S. adults between Feb. 5 and 7 — comes three weeks after Trump’s inauguration, during which time he’s issued a flurry of executive orders, including one sending troops to the U.S.-Mexico border and one attempting to overturn birthright citizenship.

Compromise with Trump?

A strong majority of respondents, 62%, said they would like to see House and Senate Democrats attempt to compromise with Trump, while 38% said they want the lawmakers to try to oppose him “as much as possible.”

The results, though, were divided along partisan lines, according to the poll, which has a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.

Majorities of Republicans and independents — 87% and 61% — want Democratic lawmakers to seek compromise.

In contrast, about two-thirds of Democrats, 65%, signaled they want their party to take up the mantle of obstructionism.

Additionally, support for finding common ground appears higher than it was during the beginning of Trump’s first term.

In an October 2017 YouGov poll, 45% of respondents said they wanted congressional Democrats to compromise more, while 30% said they wanted the lawmakers to resist more. One-quarter said they weren’t sure.

Confidence in ability to oppose Trump

When asked how much confidence they have in Democratic lawmakers’ ability “to effectively oppose Donald Trump on policies when they disagree,” most respondents — including many Democrats — expressed little to none.

A plurality of respondents, 44%, said they had not much confidence, while 15% said they had none. Meanwhile, 31% said they had some confidence, and 10% said they had a lot.

More than half of GOP respondents said they had not much (45%) or no confidence in Democrats’ ability to mount meaningful opposition (14%).

Independents were particularly skeptical, with about half, 49%, saying they had not much confidence and 19% saying they had none.

But among Democrats, opinions were more evenly split.

About half said they have not much (39%) or no confidence (9%), while the other half said they have some (36%) or a lot of confidence (16%).

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