Republicans’ Views of Justice Department, FBI Rebound as Democrats’ Views Shift More Negative

How we did this

Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand Americans’ attitudes toward federal government agencies and departments. For this analysis, we surveyed 3,554 adults from Aug. 4 to 10, 2025. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), a group of people recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses who have agreed to take surveys regularly. This kind of recruitment gives nearly all U.S. adults a chance of selection.

Interviews were conducted either online or by telephone with a live interviewer. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education, presidential vote (among voters) and other factors. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.

Here are the questions used for this report, the topline and the survey methodology.

As the Trump administration works to reshape and refocus the federal bureaucracy, Republican views of several key departments and agencies – the Department of Justice, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services – have grown considerably more positive than they were a year ago.

Democratic views of these agencies have shifted in the opposite direction over this period, and in some cases even more starkly.

Though overall public ratings of these agencies are only modestly changed from 2024, there have been big shifts in which Americans view them positively and negatively, according to a new Pew Research Center survey conducted Aug. 4-10 among 3,554 adults.

For instance, 39% of Americans view the Department of Justice favorably, while 46% view it unfavorably. Last year, 43% had a favorable view, 44% an unfavorable one.

But 51% of Republicans and Republican leaners now rate the DOJ favorably, up 18 percentage points from last year.

The trend is the opposite among Democrats, and the movement sharper: 28% of Democrats and Democratic leaners view the DOJ favorably, down 27 points from last year.

Partisans’ views of the FBI, a component agency of the Justice Department, have shifted to a similar degree.

And while 68% of Republicans – and just 26% of Democrats – now view the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) positively, last year Democrats were more likely than Republicans to rate DHS favorably.

The partisan gap in views of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a component agency of DHS, is even wider:

• Roughly seven-in-ten Republicans (72%) express a favorable view of ICE, while 21% see the agency unfavorably.
• In contrast, Democrats overwhelmingly rate ICE negatively (13% favorable, 78% unfavorable).

In Center surveys conducted by telephone through 2020, partisans’ views of the departments of Justice and Homeland Security also tended to become more positive when the presidency was held by their party, though the gaps in these views are now more pronounced. There were also relatively modest partisan gaps in evaluations of the FBI during that period.

Note that, because of differences in question wording and survey mode, the specific percentages in recent web surveys and past telephone surveys are not directly comparable. Refer to the drop-down box below for more information.

Changes in question wording and mode differences between online and phone surveys

This survey marks the third time Pew Research Center has measured public attitudes about federal government agencies on our online American Trends Panel. We previously did so in 2024 and 2023. Earlier surveys measuring views of federal agencies, including polls fielded in 2020 and 2019, were conducted by telephone.

The findings in our 2025, 2024 and 2023 web surveys are not directly comparable with those past telephone surveys for two reasons:

1. The web surveys use different question wording than past telephone surveys. Online survey respondents receive an explicit “Not sure” response option. Telephone respondents, by contrast, had to volunteer that they did not have an opinion about an agency. This change generally results in a larger share of respondents declining to offer an opinion.
2. Surveys conducted online and by telephone often produce different results because respondents sometimes answer similar questions differently across modes. This is called a “mode effect.”

These two factors mean that point estimates (for instance, the share of respondents who express a favorable opinion about a single agency in our new survey and in a prior phone survey) should not be directly compared to measure change over time. Doing so would conflate question wording and mode differences with change over time.

Despite this limitation, some broad comparisons can be made. For example, if a wide partisan gap is evident for one agency but was not apparent in past surveys – compared with partisan gaps that have remained relatively stable for other agencies – that change is likely not only a result of the transition to online polling from phone polling.

Many other federal agencies continue to get positive ratings both overall and across the political spectrum.

On balance, Americans rate 13 of the 16 federal agencies asked about in the survey more favorably than unfavorably. Of those 13 agencies, nine have net favorable ratings of 15 points or more.

Topping the list are:

• The National Park Service: 76% of Americans give it a favorable rating, including 78% of Republicans and 79% of Democrats.
• The National Weather Service: 76% of Americans view it favorably, including 75% of Republicans and 81% of Democrats.

The U.S. Postal Service, NASA, the Social Security Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs are also all viewed more positively than negatively overall and among both Republicans and Democrats. Still, Democrats’ ratings of most of these agencies are more positive than Republicans’ ratings.

How partisans view federal agencies

As has been the case in previous years, there are wide partisan gaps in Americans’ views of several federal agencies.

In addition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice and the FBI, Republicans are now more likely than Democrats to see the State Department positively: 57% of Republicans have a favorable view, while 23% have an unfavorable view. Democrats are divided (37% favorable, 39% unfavorable).

Conversely, Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to hold favorable views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Census Bureau and the IRS.

Shifting views of health agencies

Department of Health and Human Services

Currently, Republicans and Democrats give the Department of Health and Human Services similar ratings. Roughly half in each group hold a favorable view of HHS, while just under four-in-ten hold an unfavorable view.

This reflects significant shifts – in opposing directions – from last year. GOP views of HHS have improved considerably (51% favorable today, up from 33% last year), while Democratic views have worsened (47% favorable, down from 68% last year).

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Though shifts in views of the CDC are more modest, their directions are similar.

Republicans continue to hold more negative than positive views of the CDC (40% favorable, 49% unfavorable), but these evaluations are less negative than they were a year ago (33% favorable, 59% unfavorable).

And while a large majority of Democrats (69%) continue to see the CDC favorably, the share who hold this view is 9 points lower than it was in 2024 (78%).

The survey was in the field the day a man opened fire on the CDC headquarters in Atlanta, killing a police officer who tried to stop him. Most of the interviews were completed before the attack.

Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Department of Homeland Security

About two-thirds of Republicans (68%) now express a positive view of DHS, up from 41% a year ago. About a quarter of Democrats (26%) view it favorably, down considerably from 57% in 2024.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement

About seven-in-ten Republicans (72%) have a favorable opinion of ICE; just 13% of Democrats say the same. While this is the first time we’ve asked our Americans Trends Panels about views of ICE, in telephone surveys from 2018-2020, Republicans were more likely than Democrats to hold favorable views of the agency.

Federal Reserve

Democrats continue to be much more likely than Republicans to view the Federal Reserve favorably.

Equal shares of Republicans currently express favorable and unfavorable opinions of the Fed (41% each). These views are slightly more positive than last year, when 35% were favorable and 44% were unfavorable.

Six-in-ten Democrats rate the Fed positively, while 17% rate it negatively – nearly identical to their views a year ago.

The survey was conducted prior to recent developments surrounding the Federal Reserve, including President Donald Trump’s pressure to remove one of its board members and Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s remarks at the Federal Reserve’s annual meeting.

Wide partisan gaps in some agencies’ net favorability ratings – but other differences are more modest

A large majority of Republicans (72%) rate ICE favorably, while just 21% see the agency unfavorably – amounting to a 51-point net favorability rating.

Among Republicans, ICE and Homeland Security receive some of the highest net ratings of the 16 departments and agencies included in the survey. Only the National Park Service and the National Weather Service get higher net favorability ratings from the GOP.

The park service and weather service also get the highest net favorability ratings from Democrats, while ICE, Homeland Security and the Justice Department receive the lowest.