Many U.S. adults say they actively try to steer clear of news stories about President Donald Trump, even as they continue to consume other political and general news, according to a Media Insight Project survey cited by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The findings reflect what survey leaders described as divisions in an electorate where polarization and social media have changed how people follow politics and current events.
In the survey, Denver retiree Don Cohen described spending about two-and-a-half hours each day consuming news across reading and broadcast programs, even though he said he wishes he could avoid Trump-related stories. Cohen, an independent voter who said he has opposed Trump since his 2016 presidential campaign, said he has accepted that avoiding Trump news is effectively impossible because national politics coverage is closely tied to the president.
The survey results show that avoidance is not limited to Democrats. It found about 6 in 10 U.S. adults say they try to avoid news stories about Trump “often” or “sometimes,” and among Democrats and independents, about two-thirds said they engage in that kind of avoidance. Among those reducing Trump-focused coverage is Fernando Ocegueda, a Democrat in Los Angeles, who said he cut back on consuming political news for that reason, adding that he does not want to pay attention to what he said Trump has to say.
Survey leaders said the desire to avoid Trump coverage may collide with how news is structured. David Sterrett, a principal research scientist at the AP-NORC Center, said Democrats may be “exercising wishful thinking” when they say they try to avoid Trump news, because most national politics news is connected to the president.
The poll also found differences between parties in how people feel after consuming the news. Republicans were more likely than Democrats to say the news they consume gives them a hopeful view of the world, while few Democrats said the same. Democrats were more likely to say the news is too stressful to read or watch, and the survey found that roughly two-thirds of Democrats and independents said they “often” or “sometimes” try to avoid Trump news.
Even among Republicans, avoidance appears in multiple forms. The survey found about half of Republicans said they “often” or “sometimes” try to avoid Trump news stories. Nicole Pratt, a moderate Republican in Torrance, California, said she supports some actions the Trump administration has taken but does not feel she needs to read more stories focused on what she described as the president’s narcissism, saying she does not follow the fights and arguments.
Sterrett said some Republicans might report avoiding Trump news not because they are tired of updates, but because they distrust traditional news sources. He pointed to what he said is news coming directly from Trump through social media, including posts and announcements.
Beyond Trump-specific coverage, the survey found that most Americans still rely on social media for news at least daily, even as they recognize risks in what is shared. About 4 in 10 Republicans and Democrats said they get news from social media at least “daily.” Most Democrats and Republicans also said social media users have “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of responsibility for the spread of misinformation, according to the survey.
Partisans diverged more when asked where responsibility lies beyond social media users. The survey found about three-quarters of Democrats blamed politicians for misinformation, compared with 65% of Republicans, and it found 64% of Democrats blamed social media companies such as Facebook or Meta, X, and YouTube, compared with 53% of Republicans. It also found 58% of Democrats blamed artificial intelligence companies that create and develop AI chatbots, compared with 47% of Republicans, while Republicans were more likely than Democrats to blame national news media for misinformation.
Sterrett said the survey also shows overlap in some areas of news engagement across parties. It found that Americans aligned with the two major parties—Democrats and Republicans—regularly follow various news and information topics at higher rates than independents, about 8 in 10 versus roughly 7 in 10 independents. The survey further reported that outside of Trump-related news, partisans were similarly likely to avoid news about celebrities, news in general, or news on their devices, and most on both sides said they try to avoid news when talking with friends or family at least sometimes.
The survey was conducted Feb. 5-8 among 2,101 Americans, including 1,092 adults ages 18 and older and 1,009 teenagers ages 13 to 17, using a sample from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel. The margin of sampling error for adults overall was plus or minus 4.1 percentage points, and for teenagers overall plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.