54% of Voters Approve of Trump’s Transition So Far, and Most of His Nominees Face Little Resistance

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A majority of voters like the way President-elect Donald Trump is handling his transition, according to a new Morning Consult survey that also found little resistance to — or even awareness of — even the more controversial of the people he’s named to fill out his incoming administration.

According to our Nov. 15-17 survey, 54% of voters approve of the way Trump is handling his transition, compared with 38% who disapprove. President Joe Biden’s numbers were only slightly better than Trump’s at the same point four years ago, when 60% approved and 28% disapproved.

Trump’s current approval rating is bolstered by backing from 1 in 5 Democrats, more independents than not and more than 9 in 10 Republican voters. That support from Trump’s base is similar to Biden’s standing among Democrats at this time four years ago, though the 46th president fared a bit better with Republicans then than Trump does with Democrats now.

The survey was conducted during a flurry of activity from the president-elect, including his apparently cordial White House visit with Biden and a slew of personnel announcements that have drawn controversy — most notably his intent to nominate former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) as attorney general and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of Health and Human Services.

When it comes to the names that must be confirmed by the Senate, Gaetz is the only one whose nomination is underwater with voters. Our survey found that 41% of voters disapprove of Trump’s selection of the Florida Republican, compared with 34% who approve. However, a quarter of voters are unsure about his nomination, which was also the case, at the least, for eight other nominees.

Despite large shares of voters not having views about many of his nominees, like with many things related to Trump, public opinions are stronger about his actions than they were about Biden’s. Part of that is due to the fact that Trump’s picks are of a higher profile. For example, half of voters (51%) were unsure about Biden’s nomination of Antony Blinken — a foreign policy expert who shined behind the scenes during the Obama administration — to serve as secretary of State in 2020, compared with 21% who said the same now of Trump’s nomination of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) — a former presidential contender and prominent public voice — for the same role.

In terms of the Cabinet-level picks, it’s the Kennedy nomination, which has spooked the health care industry, that has truly made waves with voters: The 16% who said they didn’t know or had no opinion about the pick was only rivaled by the 15% who said the same of Elon Musk’s appointment to an outside-of-government role leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

While many voters have formed views about Kennedy’s selection, and are slightly more likely to back it than oppose it (44% to 39%), it’s worth underlining that the news hasn’t made much of a splash.

Roughly 2 in 5 voters (39%) said they had seen, read or heard “a lot” recently about Kennedy’s nomination, slightly higher than the 35% who said the same of the selection of Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to head the aforementioned unofficial department focused on federal spending or the 34% who consumed a lot of information about Gaetz’s selection.

Still, the nominations were more salient than the other big power move in Washington last week: The Senate Republican Conference’s selection of Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) to be the chamber’s next leader. Only 17% heard that Thune, who remains a mystery to 41% of all voters — including 41% of Republicans — won the GOP’s secret-ballot vote to replace Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell.

The bottom line

There is room for public opinion to move about Trump’s nominees, but the president-elect is enjoying some initial deference from the American people about the way he’s handling his transition and the names he’s choosing to fill his government.

We’ve already shown how there’s little resistance to Musk playing at least a minor role in Washington, though for others, such as Fox News weekend host Pete Hegseth, Trump’s secretary of Defense nominee, there could be some risk in not having government experience given the public’s prioritization of a mix of that and private sector experience for Cabinet picks.

For Republican senators, Trump’s standing and the popularity of his nominees with the Republican base they’re so focused on leaves little political incentive to defy the incoming president. They look inclined to only break in large numbers to not be left standing alone and drawing attention, and may prefer to forgo a vote at all. For those in Congress or in the private sector looking to stop a nominee, our data suggests the next few weeks will be critical in shaping public opinion and putting pressure on the incoming administration to withdraw any of these picks.