CBS News poll finds support for Trump's deportation program falls

After six months that included a string of achievements on President Trump's legislative goals, views of his second term are increasingly defined by the difference between his political base, which likes what it sees, and the rest of the country, which has growing doubt.

On the economic front, it comes from continued calls to focus more on prices, rather than tariffs, which most Americans oppose. And now, there's the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which at least initially, most believe will help the wealthy.

On matters of deportation, differences hinge on who, and how many, Americans see as being targeted, as well as the use of detention facilities. Here again, the Republican and MAGA political base remain overwhelmingly approving of it all, but the rest of the American public has become less so.

(On another matter, by comparison, most say the case of Jeffrey Epstein is not very important in their evaluations of the president, and in particular, the president's MAGA base remains overwhelmingly approving of his job performance, especially on immigration.)

Most now say the administration is not prioritizing dangerous criminals for deportation and also is deporting more people than they thought it would.

The program had majority support earlier in the term, but today it does not, moving along with that perception of who is being deported.

Meanwhile, most disapprove of the way the administration is using detention facilities.

Approval of the deportation program has slipped over these months to become slightly net-negative now, with support becoming more exclusively drawn from Republicans and MAGA identifiers.

Hispanic Americans, along with Americans overall, say Hispanic people are being targeted more than others for searches, and those who think so say that's unfair.

As a result, Hispanic approval of the deportation program and of Mr. Trump more generally is lower today than it was earlier in the term. (For broader context, too, during the 2024 election, Mr. Trump made gains with Hispanic voters and started his term with approval from half of Hispanics. Today he has one-third.)

This, despite widespread public views that Mr. Trump's policies have reduced border crossings.

That suggests that Mr. Trump's declining marks on immigration generally are more connected to his deportation program than activity at the border, these days.

And on balance, it's an example of how a policy pendulum can swing in American politics: in the first year of Joe Biden's presidency, most Americans said he and Democrats were not being tough enough on immigration. Today, most Americans say Mr. Trump and the Republicans are being too tough.

Half the country (again, largely outside that political base) now says the president is focusing too much on deportation.

What do people want Mr. Trump to focus on? That part isn't news: it's still prices, as it's been throughout the term. Seven in 10 say the administration isn't doing enough to try to lower them.

Inflation and prices are important to most in how they evaluate Mr. Trump overall.

Nearly two-thirds now disapprove of how Mr. Trump is handling inflation, the highest disapproval for him on that yet.

And for the first time, a plurality says the administration is focusing too much on cutting spending.

More broadly, and after having campaigned heavily on immigration and inflation, most Americans still say Mr. Trump is doing what he promised in the campaign. However, fewer say that now than did near the beginning of his term, with the difference being in part, fewer independents and fewer Democrats thinking so. Republicans largely say it's consistent.

On the debate, such as it is, around interest rates, Americans are split in their general desire for the economy — whether the bigger priority should be to keep interest rates where they are to control inflation, or lower them to make borrowing money easier.

Amid the discussion surrounding Mr. Trump and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a large majority say the Fed should act independently from the president.

But there's a caveat to all this, as many admit they don't know a lot about what the Fed does.

Powell gets mixed confidence, with Democrats expressing more confidence in him than Republicans, perhaps another example of how partisanship may stand in for more technical economic viewpoints.

Six in 10 disapprove of the One Big Beautiful Bill legislation. Views of it today are similar to what they were before the bill was passed: Most think it will hurt poor people and help the wealthy. Fewer believe it will help the middle or working class.

With so many Americans saying they don't know a lot of the bill's specifics, the initial response to it appears very partisan, opening up what may be a months-long fight to define and sell it.

And so Mr. Trump's overall approval also continues to slide as it has consistently, if incrementally, since the start of his term. It's now closer to where it spent a lot of time in his first term, in the low 40s, with similar structure underneath of negative sentiment beyond that strong approval from the base.

For all the week's punditry, the matter over the Epstein files isn't affecting Mr. Trump's overall approval among his MAGA base. For one thing, Republicans and MAGA like his handling of immigration, especially, and say they gauge him on that more.

The Epstein case doesn't compare on importance. Few Republicans, including MAGA, say issues surrounding the Epstein case matter "a lot" to how they evaluate Mr. Trump's presidency.

That said, there is some relative dissatisfaction within the GOP, including in the MAGA base, with how the administration is handling it.

Americans do want the files released — that includes Democrats, Republicans, MAGA in particular, across a wide range of groups.

Americans overwhelmingly suspect that the files contain damaging information about powerful and wealthy people.

This CBS News/YouGov survey was conducted with a nationally representative sample of 2,343 U.S. adults interviewed between July 16-18, 2025. The sample was weighted to be representative of adults nationwide according to gender, age, race, and education, based on the U.S. Census American Community Survey and Current Population Survey, as well as 2024 presidential vote. The margin of error is ±2.5 points.