Even after Donald Trump’s tariffs sent markets plummeting and economists expressed concern about consumer prices, the vast majority of Trump voters do not regret casting their ballots for the president.
Among a sample of people who voted for Trump, only 2 percent said they regret their vote and would vote differently if they had the chance, according to a new University of Massachusetts Amherst / YouGov poll.
In February 2017, 4 percent of people said they regretted voting for Trump.
The poll from UMass Amherst / YouGov also found that 74 percent of people who voted for Trump said they remain confident in their decision. Just 26 percent of voters said they have “some concerns” about their vote.
“President Trump still has ample opportunity to convince his voters that he was the right person for the job, but the clock is ticking and his supporters are watching to see if he can deliver,” Tatishe Nteta, a professor of political science at UMass Amherst and director of the poll said in a statement.
Trump campaigned on promises including conducting mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, lowering grocery prices, increasing energy production, ending the Russia–Ukraine war, ending the Israel–Hamas war, cutting taxes, and reducing federal spending.
For the most part, Trump has begun executing on those promises, but it hasn’t come without issues.
One major point of contention is Elon Musk’s role as a senior adviser and de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency, which has swiftly recommended massive cuts to the federal workforce, policies and agencies.
Polling from UMass Amherst and YouGov found that most Americans do not trust Musk to protect private information, identify federal programs to cut or avoid using his position to benefit his businesses.
Another point of contention for most Americans is the president’s quickness to defy federal judges who have ordered the administration to reinstate federal employees, agencies or policies that they’ve suddenly and drastically axed.
The poll found that 55 percent are concerned Trump will defy a court order – something the administration has already been accused of doing by refusing to return a wrongly-deported man to the U.S. from a prison in El Salvador.
Although judges have ordered the administration to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, they remain firm that he was correctly deported despite members of the government admitting it was a mistake.
But regardless of the chaos Trump has caused by upending decades-old policies and established agencies, more than 50 percent of Trump voters said they remain hopeful about the next four years, though the Trump voters who are more hopeful are white, non-college educated and earning less than $40k.
