Half of Americans say Trump admin not committed to protecting rights, freedoms: Poll

Half of Americans say the Trump administration is not committed to protecting Americans’ rights and freedoms, according to an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll conducted using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel.

Additionally, majorities say President Donald Trump is not committed to protecting freedom of the press (61%), freedom of speech (57%), a fair criminal justice system (56%) or free and fair elections (56%). About half say he is not committed to protecting freedom of religion (49%). A 73% majority, though, say he is committed to protecting freedom to own firearms.

Majorities of Republicans say Trump is committed to all of the rights measured; most Democrats and independents say he is not committed to any of them — except for owning firearms, according to the poll.

At the same time, slim majorities of Americans say the Democratic Party is committed to protecting freedom of press (53%), speech (53%), religion (52%) and free and fair elections (51%).

Americans are split over whether the Democratic Party is committed to a fair criminal justice system. And most Americans (60%) say Democrats are not committed to protecting the freedom to own firearms.

Majorities of Democrats say their party is committed to protecting all of the rights measured, while majorities of Republicans say Democrats are not. Independents are roughly split on most items, but a majority say Democrats are not committed to protecting the freedom to own firearms.

Protecting Americans

While 50% of Americans say the Trump administration is not committed to protecting Americans’ rights and freedoms, that grows to 56% who say he’s not committed to those same protections for people who are Democrats. A 65% majority of Americans say that the Trump administration is committed to protecting people who are Republicans.

Majorities of Democrats (84%) and independents (56%) say the Trump administration is not committed to protecting the rights and freedoms of Americans. An 87% majority of Republicans say it is.

$230 million Department of Justice compensation

Last month, Trump said that the Justice Department should pay him about $230 million as a settlement for investigations he faced during the Biden administration. But over 6 in 10 Americans oppose Trump getting such a payment from the Department of Justice, including 53% who oppose this strongly.

Majorities of Democrats (89%) and independents (57%) strongly oppose Trump getting $230 million in compensation from the Department of Justice. Just under half of Republicans (48%) say they support a payment, but just 23% say they strongly support it.

Judges and court orders

Six in 10 Americans say that federal judges are trying to enforce existing limits on Trump’s legal authority while just over one-third say federal judges are trying to interfere with Trump’s legal authority. These results are similar to an April ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll.

Majorities of Democrats (87%) and independents (65%) say judges are trying to enforce existing limits on Trump’s legal authority while a majority of Republicans (65%) say federal judges are trying to interfere with his legal authority.

By a 2-to-1 margin, Americans say that the Trump administration is trying to avoid complying with court orders (64%) as opposed to trying to comply with court orders (32%), also unchanged from the April poll.

Most Democrats (94%) and independents (73%) say the administration is trying to avoid complying with court orders while most Republicans (68%) say it is trying to comply.

Retribution

Americans largely see Trump as going «too far» in taking measures against his political opponents (58%). That includes 90% of Democrats and 63% of independents. Most Republicans (59%) say he’s handling this about right.

When asked about the indictment against former FBI Director James Comey, who was charged with making a false statement and obstruction related to his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020, 38% of Americans say the charges are politically motivated, while 25% say they are justified and 36% are not sure. Comey denies the charges.

That maps similarly to the share saying that the charges against former National Security Advisor John Bolton for allegedly unlawfully transmitting and retaining classified documents are politically motivated (36%), while 22% say they are justified and 41% are not sure. Bolton denies the charges.

For Comey, 65% of Democrats say the charges are politically motivated and 54% of Republicans say they are justified. A 44% plurality of independents say they are not sure, but far more (40%) say they are politically motivated rather than justified (15%).

When it comes to Bolton, Republicans are split between saying the charges are justified (43%) or that they aren’t sure (42%), while most Democrats say they are politically motivated (58%). Almost half of independents (46%) say they’re not sure about the Bolton case, but again, more say they are politically motivated (36%) than justified (17%).

Methodology — This ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll was conducted online via the probability-based Ipsos KnowledgePanel® Oct. 24-28, 2025, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 2,725 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.9 percentage points, including the design effect. Error margins are larger for subgroups. The partisan divisions are 28% Democrats, 31% Republicans and 41% independents or something else.

See more details on ABC News’s survey methodology here.

See PDF for full results.