Republicans’ views of DOJ, FBI improve, Democrats’ worsen
Republicans’ views of the DOJ and the FBI have become more positive in the past year, while Democrats’ opinions have become more negative, according to a Pew poll.
Republicans’ views of several federal departments, including the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI, have become more positive in the past year, while Democrats’ opinions have become more negative, according to an August Pew Research Center poll.
Pew found that more than half of Republicans or those who lean Republican hold positive views of the DOJ and FBI, recording 51% and 54% approval, respectively. Only 28% of Democrats and Democrat leaners approve of the DOJ . Forty-five percent of them approve of the FBI.
Republicans are also more likely to have positive opinions of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a change from last year, when it was Democrats who were more likely to approve of the department. Currently, 68% of Republicans and 26% of Democrats approve of the DHS.
Partisan views on Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which is under the DHS, are even more polarized, with 72% of Republicans supporting ICE and only 13% of Democrats having the same views.
According to Pew, members of either political party are more likely to approve of the DOJ and DHS when a president from their party is in office, but “the gaps in these views are now more pronounced.”
Overall, the DOJ’s public approval has gone down since last year, with 39% of Americans rating it favorably and 46% unfavorably. In 2024, 43% of Americans had positive views of the DOJ and 44% had negative ones.
Pew noted that of the 16 federal departments and agencies that participants were asked to rate, only three — ICE, the DOJ, and the IRS — were rated more unfavorably than favorably. Of the remaining 13 agencies, nine had net favorable ratings of at least 15 percentage points.
The agencies that both Republicans and Democrats were likely to give very favorable ratings to included the National Park Service and the National Weather Service. Republicans were more likely than Democrats to have positive views of the State Department, and Democrats were more likely to support the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the IRS.
