POLL: JEWISH AMERICANS OPPOSE TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDERS BY OVERWHELMING MAJORITIES
NATIONAL ONLINE SURVEY OF JEWISH REGISTERED VOTERS
Poll Briefing Thursday 4/24/2025 at 1pm -
U.S. Jews Oppose Executive Orders and other actions by factors of 3, 4, and even 5-1
Washington, DC – By overwhelming margins, American Jews oppose President Trump’s Executive Orders and other actions on virtually all current issues surveyed, according to a new poll by the Jewish Electorate Institute (JEI), an independent, nonpartisan organization dedicated to explaining the views of American Jewish voters. By a factor of exactly 3-1 (72-24%), American Jews disapprove of the job President Trump is doing and by a similar margin (72-23%), they believe the country is moving in the wrong direction.
These are among the findings of a new survey of 800 registered American Jewish voters, conducted for JEI by the Mellman Group from April 15-18. The numbers have a margin of error of +/-3.5% and is representative of known national age, gender, education, geography, racial and ethnic group, and Jewish movement affiliation. (The 10% who identify as Orthodox are broken out below.)
• The poll results can be found here. Detailed crosstab results from the poll can be downloaded here. And a one-page description of the poll can be found here.
(1) POLL BRIEFING INVITATION:
Join JEI and the Mellman Group for a poll briefing today, Thursday, April 24 at 1pm EDT.
You can join the briefing here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86126188187?pwd=Pz26edIgurYCAet4pjVZsa6v35FpBt.1
(2) QUOTES FROM JEI LEADERS and POLLSTER:
“This poll makes it clear that President Trump’s executive actions – across the board – are wholly rejected by American Jewish voters. The president should not ignore these results, including on his handling of antisemitism, as they reflect significant political risks for both him and his party in upcoming elections,” says the Honorable Martin Frost, a former Member of Congress and JEI’s Honorary Chair and Chairman Emeritus.
"For too long, political assumptions about American Jewish voters have clouded our understanding of the views of American Jewish electorate. While America Jews might differ on a myriad of issues, they have consistently played a notably high turnout in local, state, and national elections across the country. I’m proud that JEI has produced empirically sound non-partisan data that captures, at this moment, the pulse of the American Jewish electorate. This poll serves as a valuable resource and helps inform our nation’s policymakers and the public with important insight into what American Jews are thinking, right now, on the most crucial issues of the day," says Barbara Goldberg Goldman, JEI’s Board Chair.
“American Jewish voters are deeply distressed about the direction in which Donald Trump is taking the country and oppose many of his key policies. Indeed, a majority of Jewish voters disapprove of his job performance overall and disapprove of the way Trump is handling antisemitism,” says Mark Mellman, CEO of the Mellman Group.
(3) POLL RESULTS:
On the question of tariffs on goods imported from foreign countries, JEI’s poll finds that American Jews disapprove of the way President Trump is handling this controversial and quite current issue by a 77-16% margin, a factor of nearly 5-1. Also in the headlines is the president’s Executive Order allowing the federal government to deport individuals without a court hearing, an issue that 23% of American Jews support, while 71% oppose, the JEI poll finds.
Even fewer Jews, 12-77%, support cutting Medicaid to reduce government spending. Similarly, they oppose cuts to the Social Security Administration by 79-18% and cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs by 79-16%, also a factor of nearly 5-1. 74-23% also oppose the dismantling of the Department of Education and 75-21% of American Jews oppose cuts to federal funding of Planned Parenthood, the JEI poll finds.
On the issue of supporting the president’s Executive Orders against specific law firms, the JEI poll reports only 15% support the order, while 71% oppose it. And 74% oppose the Executive Orders that cut federal agency budgets without Congressional approval, while 18% approve.
The one slightly bright finding for the president in the JEI poll is that American Jewish approval of his handling of antisemitism in America – 31% – is his highest approval rating of the survey across all demographics (except Orthodox Jews). Overall, 56% disapprove of his handling of antisemitism. Among younger Jews aged 18-29, nearly all of whom are either currently or were recently in college, where the fight against antisemitism has been a communal focus, 33% approve of his handling of the issue, nearly the same number as across all age groups.
Importantly, amongst Orthodox Jews, the JEI poll finds that they are the most strongly supportive American Jewish segment for President Trump, with over 71% saying they approve of the job he is doing as president and fewer than 20% saying they disapprove. They also generally support most of the president’s recent Executive Actions more than they oppose them. 65% of Orthodox voters identify as Republicans, 27% as Democrats, and 8% as Independents. 67% of Orthodox voters also say they voted for Donald Trump for President in 2024 while 21% voted for Kamala Harris. Many more crosstabs can be found here.
Statistically, 60% of all respondents consider themselves liberal, 13% moderate and 27% conservative. Approximately 70% said they think of themselves as a Democrat, 23% Republican, and 7% Independent. 10% consider themselves Orthodox, 19% Conservative (movement), 38% Reform, 2% Reconstructionist, and 31% of no particular Jewish denomination.
The JEI poll also finds only one-third of American Jews (33%) say they are a member of a synagogue or temple, while fully two-thirds (67%) say they are not. And in the 2024 presidential election, 69% of all American Jews say they voted for Kamala Harris and 26% said they voted for Donald Trump. Only 3% said they didn’t vote.
(4) ABOUT THE JEWISH ELECTORATE INSTITUTE (JEI):
JEI is an independent, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization that surveys, interprets, reports, and educates policymakers and the public about the perspectives, voting behaviors, and motivations of the American Jewish electorate. JEI undertakes all its work and reports its findings, without bias or favor concerning any political group or particular ideology. Through its polling, studies, seminars, focus groups, and educational programming, JEI is the leading non-partisan voice explaining the positions and voting behaviors of the American Jewish electorate.
