Americans see Republicans growing more comfortable, and Democrats less, with sharing their views

With Republican President Donald Trump in the White House and the GOP in control of Congress, Americans are more likely now than in recent years to say Republicans are very comfortable to freely express their political views.

At the same time, the share who say Democrats are very comfortable doing this is down substantially. In fact, it’s lower than in both Joe Biden’s presidency and Trump’s first term, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in April.

These changes are mostly driven by shifts in how Americans view the climate of free expression for people in their own partisan coalition:

• Republicans and Republican-leaning independents increasingly say members of the GOP are very comfortable to freely and openly express their views.
• Meanwhile, the share of Democrats and Democratic leaners who say this about Democrats has dropped.

How we did this

Pew Research Center asked these questions to understand public perceptions about the political climate for Republicans and Democrats to express their ideas. We also sought to explore how those views may have changed over time. We surveyed 3,589 U.S. adults from April 7 to 13, 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 and other factors. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.

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

How comfortable do Americans think Republicans are to express their views?

Four-in-ten U.S. adults say Republicans are very comfortable expressing their political views. That share is higher than it was during the first year of the Biden administration, when 35% of Americans said this. It’s also higher than the 36% who said this in 2019, during the first Trump administration.

How comfortable do Americans think Democrats are to express their views?

Today, 36% of Americans say Democrats are very comfortable to express their political views. That is down from 48% in both 2021 and 2019.

Changing views among partisans

Republicans’ views

Three-in-ten Republicans and Republican leaners say Republicans in the U.S. are very comfortable to express their political views. This is up from 22% in 2024.

The share of Republicans saying Democrats are very comfortable expressing their views has fallen slightly, from 57% in 2024 to 54% today.

Democrats’ views

About two-in-ten Democrats and Democratic leaners (19%) say Democrats are very comfortable expressing their views. This is far lower than at any point since we first asked the question in 2019.

About half of Democrats (52%) say Republicans are very comfortable expressing their views. That is slightly higher than it was over the last few years.

Note: This is an update of a post by Bradley Jones, a former senior researcher at Pew Research Center, originally published on Dec. 8, 2021. Here are the questions used for this analysis, the topline and survey methodology.