Pew: Most Americans follow news about Trump

CV NEWS FEED // Most Americans say they are following the news about President Donald Trump’s second term in office, more than those who tuned into former President Joe Biden’s administration, a recent Pew Research Center survey found.

“As the president and his allies move to reshape the federal government and U.S. foreign policy, about seven-in-ten U.S. adults say they have been following news about the actions and initiatives of the Trump administration very (31%) or fairly (40%) closely,” Pew reported.

In the early stages of the Biden administration, only 66% said they were following the news about his term. Additionally, only 22% said in 2021 that they were “very closely” following presidential news.

Contrary to what occurred in Biden’s term, large majorities of both Republicans and Democrats (74% vs. 71%) are paying attention to news about Trump at least fairly closely. Democrats are now more likely to say that they are paying more attention to Trump compared with Republicans (44% vs. 37%); however, they are also more likely compared with Republicans to say they are paying less attention (15% vs. 5%).

Screenshot / Pew Research Center

Forty percent of Americans overall say they monitor political news more than they did before Trump’s second term began, compared to the 10% who say they pay less attention. 

According to Pew, the top reason that more Americans are suddenly tuning into presidential news is that Americans are “concerned about what the administration is doing.” A similar percent (62%) said that the news is relevant to their lives. Just over 40% said that the news is “hard to avoid” and 36% said that they like what Trump’s administration is doing. One-quarter of respondents considered the news “entertaining or interesting.” 

Republicans’ top reason for following the news was that they like what the administration is doing (64%), while Democrats’ main reason was that they are concerned about it (88%). Forty-five percent of Republicans said they follow the news out of concern.

The top reason for Americans avoiding presidential news was that they are “worn out by the amount of it” (49%), followed by 48% who said that they aren’t interested in political news. Democrats were more likely than Republicans to say that they don’t follow the news because they’re worn out, while Republicans were more likely to say that they simply don’t follow political news.