The majority of Americans approve of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition, and large shares are in favor of some of his most controversial nominees, according to a new CBS/YouGov poll released as Trump has largely completed the process of nominating his top Cabinet picks.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 16: Politician Robert F. Kennedy Jr. looks on during the UFC 309 event ... [+]
Some 59% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s handling of the presidential transition process and 41% disapprove, but 75% said the Senate should hold confirmation hearings on his nominees, rather than let Trump approve them without Senate hearings or approval, as he’s suggested doing through a mechanism known as “recess appointments” that the president could deploy when the Senate isn’t in session.
Of the five nominees CBS and YouGov asked about, just one had more opponents than supporters: Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who bowed out as Trump’s attorney general pick amid a widening sexual misconduct scandal, received the lowest marks, as 30% of people said Gaetz was a good choice, 38% said he wasn’t good and 32% hadn’t heard enough.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. received the most positive reception, as 47% of respondents said Kennedy—controversial due to his vaccine skepticism and support for fringe health theories—is a good choice for Health and Human Services secretary, 34% said he’s not good and 19% said they haven’t heard enough.
Former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, who was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2017, had a somewhat tougher reception: 33% of Americans said Hegseth is a good choice for Defense secretary, 28% said he’s not a good choice and 39% said they haven’t heard enough (Hegseth has denied the allegations against him).
Two other high-profile nominees picked up more supporters than opponents: Some 44% of respondents said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is a good choice for secretary of state and 36% said former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, is a good pick for director of national intelligence.
The poll of 2,232 U.S. adults was conducted Nov. 19-22 and has a 2.3-point margin of error.
The majority of respondents approve of both Trump’s plans for mass deportations (57%) and his plan to impose broad tariffs on U.S. imports (52%), the poll found. Most Trump voters also don’t believe the tariffs will make prices higher—contradicting predictions from most experts—and the third that do think tariffs will lead to higher prices support them anyway. Trump has proposed raising tariffs by 10% on all imported goods and by 60% on goods imported from China. Economists largely believe Trump’s tariffs proposals would lead to an increase in the price of consumer goods and hurt the economy by leading to less spending, increased unemployment and slowed economic growth.
Trump quickly nominated his picks to lead most government agencies, largely completing the process Saturday with the announcement of Brooke Rollins for agriculture secretary and tapping hedge fund executive Scott Bessent for treasury secretary on Friday. Gaetz abruptly took himself out of the running for attorney general on Thursday, writing in a statement that he believed he was creating a distraction for the incoming administration as multiple Republican senators openly questioned his chances of being approved in a Senate confirmation hearing. Gaetz resigned from Congress hours after Trump appointed him and days before the House Ethics Committee was expected to vote to release a report on its investigation into Gaetz’s conduct. Hours after Gaetz announced he wouldn’t pursue the role, Trump announced former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi as his pick to lead the Justice Department. Bondi served as Florida AG from 2011 to 2019 and was part of Trump’s defense team during his first impeachment trial in 2020.
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