Republican pollster shares how voters view Trump's agenda

+ Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player Open Navigation Menu --> Newsletters NPR Shop Close Navigation Menu Home News Expand/collapse submenu for News National World Politics Business Health Science Climate Race Culture Expand/collapse submenu for Culture Books Movies Television Pop Culture Food Art & Design Performing Arts Life Kit Gaming Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows Daily Morning Edition Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday All Things Considered Up First Here & Now NPR Politics Podcast Featured Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Planet Money Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics Republican pollster shares how voters view Trump's agenda NPR's Michel Martin asks Republican pollster Jim Hobart how voters view President Trump's agenda – the Iran war, the "anti-weaponization" fund, the ballroom – and what informs their midterm choices. Politics Republican pollster shares how voters view Trump's agenda June 5, 20264:43 AM ET Heard on Morning Edition Michel Martin Republican pollster shares how voters view Trump's agenda Listen &middot; 5:30 5:30 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5846648/nx-s1-9798514" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript NPR's Michel Martin asks Republican pollster Jim Hobart how voters view President Trump's agenda – the Iran war, the "anti-weaponization" fund, the ballroom – and what informs their midterm choices. Sponsor Message MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Let's bring in somebody who is watching what voters think of the president's agenda. Jim Hobart is a Republican pollster and partner at Public Opinion Strategies. He's worked on many GOP gubernatorial and Senate campaigns. And let me mention for this interview, he's not doing work for the White House, and he was nice enough to stop by our studios in Washington, D.C. Jim Hobart, good morning. Thanks for coming.

+ JIM HOBART: Good morning. Great to be here. MARTIN: So we've watched the president slip in some prominent polls. For example, The Economist tracks polling by YouGov and says Trump hit a new low this week - a net approval rating of -25. So why do you think voters are souring on him? So that's the first question. And of course, I need you to tell us which voters because, as we just heard, the president's been very persuasive in Republican primaries, for the most part. Republican voters have followed his lead on some of those things. So why are voters souring on him, and which voters are we talking about? HOBART: I think you are seeing some slippage, and it's largely due to the war in Iran, especially how that is playing further into cost concerns that voters have, right? I always say that gas prices are the one price that everyone sees essentially on a billboard. So voters are very aware of gas prices. But to your other point, I think it's important to note that the president remains incredibly popular with the majority of Republican voters, especially the types of voters who vote in Republican primaries. MARTIN: OK. But - so now the primaries are, for the most part, over. So now we're moving into the general, OK? Franco mentioned several Senate Republicans who say they oppose the administration's anti-weaponization fund, like Susan Collins of Maine, Dan Sullivan of Alaska. But - so now that these folks are, for the most part, past their primaries, are they more likely to sort of be more outspoken? People who are in close races, for example. HOBART: Well, I think that's going to ultimately work to their advantage, right? Looking at the vote last night, when you're running - especially in a state like Maine, like Susan Collins, but Dan Sullivan's going to have a tough race. There's some other senators. It's really nice to be able to take a vote that says, hey, no, I stood up to the president - right? - to show some independence from the president. MARTIN: But are they taking these votes knowing that they're going to lose? Is it mainly symbolic, or does this signal some real disagreement? HOBART: I think it's both things, right? Like, look, these are smart senators. I think Susan Collins just cast her 10,000th vote. Like, she knows how to count votes, right? But she recognizes that, hey, maybe this isn't where she is personally politically, too, but there's also some - probably some campaign calculus to it as well. MARTIN: So some Republican senators have balked at President Trump's decision-making on appointments. The president said he'd tried to promote his former private attorney, Todd Blanche, from acting attorney general to attorney general. He brought in mortgage chief Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence. Now, on Thursday, the president said he won't actually nominate Pulte for the permanent intel job. You know, what's the takeaway here? Is it that it might be hard to get somebody like Pulte confirmed, or are the senators trying to send a bigger message? HOBART: I think it's both. I think you have some senators who have a little more freedom because they've lost their primaries or because they're retiring, so they're a little more willing to push back against the president. And then also, I think that it is - again, they can count votes just as well, right? They know they're going to lose a handful of Republican votes. They're going to lose all the Democratic votes. So it's helpful to not force the president to put someone to a vote that he - that's not going to win. MARTIN: Now, I'm curious of what you think is breaking through with voters. I mean, as, you know, people have pointed out - a lot of people understand this - people get their information from different places, right? A lot of the news outlets that are preferred by Republican primary voters or conservative voters or the president's base, they don't really report on the things that some of the other news outlets do, at least not to the same degree. The president's undertaken a host of projects that he says are going to beautify the nation's capital - the gold embellishments in the White House, plans for this arch, yesterday announcing a pedestrian bridge to connect the Lincoln Memorial to the Potomac River. We can play a clip of that. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It's called the promenade. It'll be the promenade. They want to call it the Trump promenade, but I don't know if I want to do that. But it's going to be beautiful. It's a beautiful project. MARTIN: Do voters, including those who voted for Trump in the past - do they embrace these priorities? Do they notice things like this, or does it seem a little out of touch with the things that, you know, you pointed out that people care about, like gas prices and food prices? HOBART: There's some voters who are going to be supportive of what the president is doing no matter what, especially given the way he talks about it - beautifying Washington, D.C., cleaning up their city. They're going to be like, yeah, you know, this is what the president should have been doing, and only Trump could have gotten it done. Then there's going to be other voters - voters more in the middle, certainly Democratic voters - who say, hey, why is he prioritizing this when he can be prioritizing other things? So again, like so much, the base is always going to be with him. Swing voters - at least right now - little bit more of a challenge. MARTIN: Who's the bigger group, though? HOBART: You know, his base is essentially about 40%, so it's - of the country. So it's certainly the larger group. But in a midterm election, it's the swing voters who are going to decide whether it's a good night for Republicans or a bad night. MARTIN: So we're at (ph) 20 seconds here. Do Republican voters on the whole or do people like yourself who advise candidates who are running in this environment - would you like the president to be changing his message to get away from these sort of personal preoccupations into other things, or does it really matter? HOBART: I think midterm elections are always hard for the party that controls the White House. So could the president be talking about some things differently? Sure, but there's only so much you can do. MARTIN: That's Jim Hobart. He's a partner at Public Opinion Strategies. Thank you so much. HOBART: Sure. Thank you. Copyright &copy; 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. 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