With President-elect Donald Trump just weeks away from taking his second oath of office, it is increasingly important to look at the policies he was elected to pursue, and what voters want to see from the incoming administration.
Last week in these pages, we revealed post-election polling conducted by our firm, Schoen Cooperman Research, which indicated that, at the most basic level, Trump was elected to simply get things done.
But given Republicans’ slim margin in the House, it is almost certain that the administration will need some Democratic buy-in if it hopes to achieve anything at all.
For their part, Democrats — particularly moderate Democrats open to bipartisan cooperation — should look to work with moderate Republicans, including the increasingly influential Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, to advance real solutions to issues such as lowering the cost of living, commonsense immigration reform, and improving public safety.
Indeed, SCR’s poll noted a particularly strong feeling among Americans that the Biden-Harris administration was ineffective at getting things done, something Democrats in the upcoming Congress should work to remedy.
While nearly 6-in-10 (58 percent) voters felt that the current government was generally ineffective, pluralities of voters overall (40 percent) and Independents (39 percent) felt that in light of the election results, government will be more effective going forward.
Critically, we found that this belief existed despite similar pluralities of voters (41 percent) and of independents (39 percent) feeling less confident that government can be trusted, underscoring the deep desire for effective leadership.
In that same vein, as we mentioned last week, Trump was elected to bring change to the country from the current administration, something a large majority (68 percent) of Americans believe he will be able to do, according to CNN.
And while Americans’ broad desire for change and an effective government certainly played a role in Trump’s victory, the real reason Trump won – and the keys to a successful second term – come down to the issues.
Put another way, while Democrats suffered from pervasive sentiment that they were not focused on the right issues — just 31 percent said Biden was focused on the issues that mattered most, according to Monmouth polling. Trump’s victory was a result of voters trusting him more to address the issues that mattered to them.
As such, voters will be expecting the Trump administration be committed to delivering real results on issues like the economy, securing the border, and lowering the cost of living.
This is where Democrats stand to gain from working with Trump, as they will receive some of the credit for advancing solutions rather than obstructing him at every turn, as they did during his first term.
However, it is essential that Trump push policies that address these issues, rather than being consumed with divisive personal or political differences, which will alienate Democratic lawmakers and achieve little.
On the specific policies voters will want Trump to pursue, the economy and lowering the cost of living continue to be the most important: roughly one-third (34 percent) of voters cite that in post-election polling from Fox News, followed by immigration (21 percent).
Moreover, 60 percent of voters feel it is extremely important that Trump lower the prices of gas and food, two cornerstones of his campaign.
Trump’s plans to ramp up domestic energy production will surely lower the cost of energy — but lowering prices in the grocery store may prove to be the biggest obstacle. The 25 percent tariffs Trump has threatened to impose on Mexico will radically increase the costs of certain foods, specifically vegetables, nuts, and avocados.
Similarly, his oft-touted mass deportation of more than 10 million illegal migrants could cause havoc for American farmers who rely on undocumented workers, severely affecting America’s food production.
To be clear, this is not to say that Trump should overhaul his immigration and border security policies. Voters made it abundantly clear that they wanted a president who could secure the border. Rather, it is to suggest that if Trump wants to both drive down the cost of living and strengthen the border, a middle ground must be found.
It should include working with Mexican authorities to better control their side of the border, stemming the influx of migrants.
Similarly, by combining a commonsense pathway to citizenship for law-abiding migrants already here with a crackdown on criminal migrants, Trump can both expand the U.S. economy while tackling issues of crime and abuse of our immigration system.
On foreign policy, the area where a president’s powers are least constrained by Congress, Trump should look to reassert American strength and leadership in order to calm an increasingly dangerous world.
While this runs counter to his “America first” slogan — and its growing appeal to those on the political right — there should be no illusion that the U.S. is made safer or more prosperous by returning to isolationism.
To his credit, Trump has already taken steps in this direction. He has warned Hamas and its Iranian-backers that there “will be hell to pay” if the Israeli hostages taken on Oct. 7, 2023, are not returned when he enters office.
Yet more can and should be done to reassure our allies that we will not abandon them to the rising tide of autocrats in Moscow, Beijing, or Tehran.
Pushing our NATO allies to spend more on collective defense is an admirable policy, but that can be done without crippling the world’s most effective alliance — one which 58 percent of Americans view favorably and two-thirds (66 percent) believe benefits the U.S., according to Pew Research.
Taken together, on the economy, immigration, foreign policy and other issues, voters will be looking for a Trump administration which takes a moderate approach to the issues, is committed to effectively governing, and prioritizes that over extreme, grievance-driven governance.
Ultimately, despite a landslide 312-226 victory in the Electoral College, Trump’s victory was extremely close. His 1.5-point popular vote margin of victory was the fourth smallest by a winning candidate since Richard Nixon’s in 1968, according to the American Presidency Project.
This is not only critical for Republicans who hope to build on their 2024 win to expand their Congressional majorities in 2026, but also for Democrats, who have the responsibility to work for the benefit of the country, even if it means working with a President they detest.
If both sides — and Trump — understand that they have more to gain by working with rather than against each other on middle-of-the-road solutions and avoiding exacerbating the partisan divide, everyone will likely benefit. And the greatest winner will be the American people.
Douglas E. Schoen and Carly Cooperman are pollsters and partners with the public opinion company Schoen Cooperman Research based in New York. They are co-authors of the book, “America: Unite or Die.”
