by Ben Whedon
President-elect Donald Trump seems to finally be enjoying the honeymoon period he didn’t get after his 2016 victory, with Democrats publicly expressing willingness to work with him on key initiatives and public polling showing broad approval of his plans.
After winning the White House the first time, Trump didn’t experience the traditional polling bump and sense of public optimism that often comes with a new president. The post-2024 transition period, however, has been discernibly different.
In a recent Rasmussen Reports survey, 55 percent of voters expressed the belief that Trump’s election win had given him a mandate to implement his agenda, while 32 percent disagreed and 13 percent were unsure. A separate Napolitan Institute survey, found that 53 percent approved of how Trump is handling the transition while 43 percent disapproved.
As he goes to war with some Senate Democrats and moderate Republicans over his Cabinet nominees, public support for his agenda seems to be giving him momentum to push through the controversial personnel picks who will implement it. Some Democrats, moreover, have expressed openness to specific nominees and interest in participating in some of his initiatives.
The incoming commander-in-chief has repeatedly pointed to his landslide electoral victory that saw him carry both the Electoral College and the popular vote to support claims of a mandate for change. To that end, he has selected nominees for key departments with unconventional backgrounds and has rattled upper chamber lawmakers in doing so.
The confirmation hearings won’t begin until January, but in the meantime, lawmakers face a pressure campaign from Trump supporters to get on board with his efforts.
Democrats are on board with DOGE
Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., last week became the first Democrat to join the House’s newly-formed DOGE caucus, a group of lawmakers dedicated to trimming the size of the government and working with Trump’s planned Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“I’ve been clear that there are ways we can reorganize our government to make it work better for the American people,” he said at the time. “The Caucus should look at the bureaucracy that the DHS has become and include recommendations to make Secret Service and FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] independent federal agencies with a direct report to the White House.”
Potentially driving lawmakers like Moskowitz to get on board with the DOGE agenda is public polling data suggesting it enjoys broad support. The Napolitan survey also found that 52 percent of Americans approve of the way Trump is managing the transition.
Some of the specific proposals from DOGE co-leaders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, such as bringing federal employees back to the office, have majority support. Fifty-seven percent of Americans backed requiring federal employees to cease remote work, while just 28 percent opposed the move in the Napolitan survey. Fifty-three percent backed firing those who refused to work in-person. Another 60 percent supported moving some federal agencies out of the Washington, D.C., area.
The public is, at best, cautiously optimistic about DOGE’s prospects, even if they support its efforts. Only 45 percent think the new department can “easily eliminate” trillions in waste. Forty-nine percent think eliminating waste fraud and abuse will balance the budget.
Cabinet confirmations
At least some of Trump’s cabinet picks seem to have picked up support from upper chamber Democrats, notably Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., whom he tapped for Secretary of State. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., had positive words for the Florida Republican, as did other lawmakers across the aisle. “Unsurprisingly, the other team’s pick will have political differences than my own,” Fetterman said. “That being said, my colleague [Rubio] is a strong choice and I look forward to voting for his confirmation.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., moreover, has also expressed interest in Rubio’s potential confirmation. “I look forward to talking to him. You know, Marco Rubio, you have strange bedfellows, and you have strange alliances,” she said.
Fetterman also expressed openness to Dr. Mehmet Oz to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Oz and Fetterman squared off for one of the Keystone State’s Senate seats in 2022. Fetterman insisted he doesn’t have “any kind of bitterness” toward Oz and was “open to dialogue” on the issues relevant to CMS.
To be sure, Democrats haven’t signed up to back some of his more contentious nominees. Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, R, had to drop his bid for Attorney General in the face of intransigent Democrats and moderate Republicans who refused to support him.
Now, Defense Secretary-designate Pete Hegseth faces uncertain prospects as Democrats largely oppose him and some of the same Republicans concerned with Gaetz have not committed to his confirmation.
Immigration
Democratic support for Trump’s immigration plans does not appear to be quite as strong and public support seems more mixed, though his topline proposals enjoy majority support. Sixty-two percent of voters support using law enforcement and the military to deport nearly 20 million illegal immigrants, the Napolitan poll found. Just 31 percent disapproved of that approach.
Support for removing specific illegal categories of illegal immigrants varied significantly, with 86 percent supporting the deportation of criminals, 77 percent for removing those who don’t show up to immigration status hearings, 60 percent for those who arrived recently, and 59 percent for the unemployed. Just 33 percent supported deporting immigrants married to citizens, while 36 percent backed removing those who have been here more than 10 years or arrived with parents as children.
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Reporter Ben Whedon joined the Just the News team in March of 2022 after previously working as an editor and national security reporter for Breitbart News.
