Over half of Americans approve of how President Donald Trump is handling crime, according to an AP-NORC poll released Wednesday.
Of those surveyed, 53% said they approve of Trump’s approach to tackling crime, including 46% of independents and 16% of Democrats, according to the poll. The survey was conducted after the president announced on Aug. 11 that he is deploying the National Guard to help stamp out violent crime in the Washington, D.C.
Moreover, 55% of respondents said they think it is acceptable for the U.S. military and National Guard to aid local police in large cities, according to the poll. Still, only a third of voters said they support the federal government taking over major cities’ police departments, the AP-NORC survey found.
Additionally, about 8 in 10 Republicans said they think it is acceptable for the federal government to use the U.S. military and National Guard to assist local police, while just just over half — 51% — think it is acceptable for the federal government to take control of large city police departments. Meanwhile, 46% — a plurality — of independents and 30% of Democrats said it is acceptable for the federal government to use the military and National Guard to help local police.
“About damn time that somebody did something,” Charles Arnold, 87, a lifelong Republican who lives in San Diego, told the AP on Wednesday.
Two-thirds of Americans think crime in the U.S. is a “major” problem, while 81% think it is a major issue in large cities, according to the poll. The poll found that 96% of Republicans view crime as a major concern in large cities, alongside 68% of Democrats.
Democrats are reportedly struggling to create an effective message to counter Trump’s efforts to tackle crime in Washington, D.C. However, some Democrats have claimed that Trump’s efforts to stamp out crime in the nation’s capital is a “political liability” for the GOP.
Additionally, Democratic D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb announced Aug. 15 that he is suing the Trump administration over it taking control of Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department.
Overall, Trump’s job approval rating was 45%, up 5 points from a July 17 AP-NORC poll, according to the survey. Meanwhile, 43% of respondents said they approved of the president’s approach to the economy, up from 38% in July, the poll found.
However, 6 in 10 respondents said they think that the U.S. economy is faring poorly, according to the poll.
The nationwide poll was conducted August 21 to 25, 2025, using the AmeriSpeak® Panel, the probability-based panel of NORC at the University of Chicago. Online and telephone interviews using landlines and cell phones were conducted with 1,182. The overall margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
