The poll found 39% of Americans blamed Trump and Republicans in Congress for the shutdown, while 33% blamed Democrats in Congress. Another 20% blamed both Democrats and Republicans equally, while 8% said they were not sure.
The poll echoes other recent surveys that also found that more Americans blame Republicans and Trump for the shutdown rather than Democrats.
The poll also found Americans widely disapproved of Trump and lawmakers in Congress when it came to how they were handling the shutdown. Fifty-three percent of Americans disapproved of Trump’s handling of the shutdown, 53% disapproved of congressional Republicans’ handling of the issue and 52% approved of Democrats’ handling of it.
Most Americans in the poll said they were not strongly affected by the shutdown. Just 7% said they were affected a “great deal” by the shutdown, 14% said they were “somewhat” affected, 25% said they were “a little” affected and 54% said they were not affected at all.
More results from the same poll at https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/53161-government-shutdown-donald-trump-approval-ice-immigration-economy-doj-justice-department-conversion-therapy-october-10-13-2025-economist-yougov-poll (arc)
If that were true, Trump wouldn’t have mandated all these government agencies putting up messages like "Due to the Democrat Shutdown, we are no longer updating this . . . ". What purpose would that have other than manipulating public opinion?