Trump more trusted by Americans than media: YouGov poll

According to the poll, only 29 percent of Americans say they have a fair amount or a great deal of trust in the media’s ability to report facts fully, accurately, and fairly. In contrast, 44 percent of Americans say the same about the Trump administration. The survey also found that Americans are more likely to view the media’s coverage of Trump as too negative, with around four in ten believing the media wants him to fail.

Meanwhile, 38 percent of Americans say they lack trust in the Trump administration’s ability to report facts fully and accurately. However, 25 percent say they have a great deal of trust in the administration, up from 18 percent in 2017, when he took office for his first term.

The poll also found that 43 percent of Americans believe the media actively wants Trump to fail. This includes 73 percent of Republicans, 40 percent of independents, and even 15 percent of Democrats. A majority of Americans (59 percent) believe the media should be neutral in its coverage of Trump; 64 percent of Democrats and 52 percent of Republicans expressed this sentiment. However, 42 percent of Democrats still think the media’s coverage has been too positive toward him.

The changing perception of media comes as President Trump won the 2024 election in part by embracing alternate forms of media such as podcasting. Trump appeared on numerous podcasts online, gaining millions of views. This shifting landscape has been acknowledged even by mainstream media pundits. CNN host Van Jones, following Trump’s electoral win, admitted that “the entire political class is way off” in understanding how the American electorate consumes media.

“I'm telling you guys, the mainstream has become fringe and the fringe has become mainstream. There are people out there that are getting 14 million streams, and we're on cable news getting one or two million and so there is a whole world out there,” Jones said last December at the Dealbook Summit. “I hate to agree with her but I do a lot of times, Donald Trump understood that and we didn't. And that's not just Democrats, the entire political class is way off, way off, way off.”