Americans elected Donald Trump for a second term, but that It doesn’t mean they have a lot of confidence. in their ability to select qualified people for their Cabinet or to effectively manage government, military and White House spending, according to a new survey from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
As Trump names his appointees to key positions in his administration — some of whom could face difficult battles confirmation in the Senate, even with Republicans in control—about half of adults in the United States have “no confidence” in Trump’s ability to appoint qualified people to his Cabinet and other high-level government positions.
The appointment process and its breakneck speed are representative of Trump’s promise to be a disruptive force in the country, and could mean a return to the era of chaotic governance that defined his first four years in the Oval Office. But only about 3 in 10 Americans are “extremely” or “very” confident that Trump will choose qualified people to serve in his administration. A majority of Republicans say they are very confident.
Trump has promised to shake up Washington with an aggressive approach which includes the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a non-governmental task force assigned to find ways to lay off federal workers, cut programs and reduce federal regulations, which will be led by billionaire Elon Musk and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.
Beyond his appointments, however, the survey finds a similar level of confidence in Trump’s ability to manage government spending and perform other presidential duties, including oversight of the military and the White House, as he did in the first term. of Trump, experienced significant staff turnover high level, especially in its early days.
That’s not exactly the same challenge faced four years ago by President Joe Biden, who took office with higher levels of trust in some areas than others.
Democrats and independents, the most distrustful
Los Democrats and independents are the most likely to doubt Trump’s leadership. That low trust is generally driven by Democrats and independents.
A large part of the Democrats distrusts Trump’s abilities on all of these fronts: About three-quarters say they have “no confidence” that he will be able to effectively manage the White House, government spending or the military, or choose qualified people for his Cabinet.
Little or not at all confident
About 4 in 10 independents, meanwhile, say they They are “little” or “not at all” confident in Trump’s ability to execute each of these responsibilities, while about 2 in 10 are “extremely” or “very” confident.
Confidence among Republicans is greater, but It’s not overwhelming. About 6 in 10 Republicans are “extremely” or “very” confident in Trump’s ability to choose qualified people to serve in his Cabinet and manage the White House, the military and government spending.
About 2 in 10 Republicans are “moderately confident,” and another 2 in 10 are “a little” or “not at all” confident in each case.
Biden He faced similar obstacles at the beginning of his term. When he took office in 2021, people also had some doubts about how he would carry out some important responsibilities, but unlike Trump, where the concern is fairly uniform across different tasks, they had more confidence in Biden’s ability to get some things done. than others.
When he entered the White House, Biden had served eight years as Barack Obama’s vice president, as well as decades in the Senate, and he based his 2020 campaign largely on those years of experience.
A separate AP-NORC poll conducted shortly after Biden took office, which phrased the question slightly differently, found a higher level of confidence in Biden’s ability to appoint qualified people to his Cabinet and manage the White House. than his ability to manage the military and government expenses.