President Donald Trump’s backers are so committed to his agenda, they’re willing to take a financial hit to see it succeed, according to a new Politico-Public First poll that highlights how much loyalty drives the Trump movement — and how much the Democrats are less willing.
The survey found the typical Trump voter would willingly pay about $65 more per month in taxes to support a Trump-backed policy.
By contrast, anti-Trump voters said they would give up $33 in higher taxes per month just to oppose his agenda.
The findings underscore what Trump allies have said for years: The America First movement is about conviction, not convenience.
The poll sought to try to take political bias out of backing policy, and it found Republicans willing to pay almost twice as much in taxes as Democratic voters backing the tax-and-spend policies of their candidates.
“One of the main challenges pollsters face is how to poll something after a politician has announced” a policy, Public First pollster Seb Wride told Politico.
“By that point, it can be impossible to separate genuine support for the policy, from support for the politician, from support for the arguments being made for and against it.
“To counter this, we cut out all the substance of the announcement, and looked just at how quantifiable impacts and statements of partisan support cancel each other out.”
Researchers tested how partisan identity shapes public opinion by presenting voters with pairs of hypothetical bills that listed only measurable effects — tax changes, job impacts, or grocery costs — while noting whether Trump, Republican lawmakers, or Democrats supported or opposed each measure.
After thousands of respondents weighed in, the data showed Trump’s endorsement alone was a decisive factor — far more powerful than the backing of other political figures.
Other Republican lawmakers could not match that influence, though. Without Trump’s name attached, GOP voters were willing to accept only a $27 tax increase for a Republican-endorsed measure.
Trump’s detractors showed a mirror-image mindset. Voters who backed former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 said they would accept a $61 monthly tax hike for a Democrat-backed bill and would support a Trump-approved measure only if it cut their taxes by at least $33.
Public First conducted the Politico poll among 2,051 U.S. adults online from Oct. 18-21. The full-sample results have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.
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