Opinion Weekend
November 8-9, 2025
Lessons from the 2025 elections Clifford Young, Ipsos Negative views of the economy punished Biden and the Democrats in 2024. If perceptions of the economy do not improve, the same could happen to Trump and Republicans in 2026.
What Americans think about 20 political, activist, and extremist groups Jamie Ballard, YouGov New YouGov polling about 20 political, activist, and extremist groups finds that Mothers Against Drunk Driving is viewed more favorably than unfavorably by Americans overall and within political, racial, gender, and age groups. Black Lives Matter, Antifa, Moms for Liberty, and Turning Point USA are viewed more divisively.
POLITICO Poll: Here’s who Democrats think is their leader Samuel Benson and Anna Wiederkehr, Politico Seismic victories in a series of off-cycle elections on Tuesday showed the power of an energized liberal base all across the country — and teased at the potential for the Democratic Party to storm back to power. But those wins did not immediately crown a singular leader who can harness that energy. There are still dozens of competitors for the throne.
How do Americans think Reagan felt about tariffs? David Montgomery, YouGov Most Americans identify Trump as a supporter of high tariffs, and half or more say recent Democratic politicians Kamala Harris, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Bill Clinton support low tariffs. Other figures, from Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln to Reagan and George W. Bush, have large shares of Americans unsure about their preferred tariff policy.
Here’s how much Trump voters would pay in taxes to back his policies Jessica Piper, Politico The POLITICO Poll measured how much economic pain voters will tolerate — if it aligns with their partisan views. 82% of Gen Z adults use AI chatbots. Is that a problem? Andrew Romano, Yahoo News When it comes to interacting with artificial intelligence, a huge generation gap has opened up in the three years since ChatGPT debuted and sparked the current AI boom.
Decline in consumer sentiment seen across age, income, political affiliation Joanne Hsu, University of Michigan Consumer sentiment fell back about 6% this November, led by a 17% drop in current personal finances and a 11% decline in year-ahead expected business conditions. With the federal government shutdown dragging on for over a month, consumers are now expressing worries about potential negative consequences for the economy.
Short-Term Inflation Expectations Decline; Labor Market Expectations Mixed Center for Microeconomic Data, Federal Reserve Bank of New York The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Center for Microeconomic Data released the October 2025 Survey of Consumer Expectations, which shows that households’ inflation expectations decreased at the short-term horizon and remained unchanged at the medium- and longer-term horizons. Unemployment rate and job finding expectations worsened, while job loss expectations slightly improved.
Which political figures Americans think have above- and below-average IQs Taylor Orth, YouGov President Donald Trump has frequently used the phrase “low IQ” to insult some of his foes — particularly women and Black Americans. Trump has also touted what he claims to be his own high IQ, as well as that of his ally Elon Musk. A new YouGov poll asked Americans about their own IQs — and the IQs of 38 political figures, including Trump’s.
NIL remains broadly popular, but some have worries about the future of college athletics Johnny Sawyer, Ipsos The landscape of college athletics has changed dramatically in recent years driven by the introduction of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rights for athletes in 2021 and the rollout of athlete revenue sharing this year. Amid these changes, new Ipsos data finds that Americans strongly support student-athletes getting paid. However, the seismic shifts in the landscape of college athletics over the past five years have not come without concerns.
