A new survey from the Media Insight Project reveals that roughly 63 percent of Americans actively try to avoid news coverage about President Trump, underscoring a growing fatigue with the 47th president's media footprint. The poll, released Wednesday, found that 31 percent of respondents said they often skip Trump-related stories, while 32 percent reported occasionally avoiding such coverage.
Only 18 percent of those surveyed said they rarely bypass Trump news, and 17 percent said they never do. The findings suggest a significant portion of the electorate is tuning out, even as Trump dominates the national political landscape.
Partisan Divide in News Consumption
Republicans remain the most engaged audience for Trump news. The survey found that 25 percent of GOP respondents rarely avoid Trump stories, and 24 percent said they never skip them. However, 33 percent of Republicans said they sometimes avoid Trump coverage, and 17 percent said they often do.
Democrats and independents showed strikingly similar patterns of avoidance. Among both groups, 38 percent said they often avoid Trump news, and roughly one-third said they sometimes do. Just 15 percent of Democrats said they rarely or never skip such stories, compared with 14 percent of independents who rarely skip and 13 percent who never do.
Why Some Tune Out
Nicole Pratt, a 62-year-old from Torrance, California, told the Associated Press that she has deliberately reduced her news intake. “His fights with other people, his arguments — I don’t bother with that anymore,” she said. While she supports some aspects of the Trump administration, she views the president’s behavior as narcissism. “It’s like, I have other things to do,” she added.
David Sterrett, a principal research scientist at the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which partnered on the survey, noted that Democrats face a dilemma. “They would like to avoid Trump news, but they’re probably not because most national politics news is somewhat connected to the president,” Sterrett told the AP.
Broader Disengagement from Politics
The survey also found that 57 percent of Americans avoid news about national politics overall. While 8 in 10 Democrats and Republicans consistently follow a range of news topics, only 7 in 10 independents do the same. This suggests that Trump fatigue is part of a wider trend of political news avoidance.
The Trump brand extends even to federal documents, but many Americans appear weary of the constant coverage. Even as the president pushes for a ceasefire in Ukraine and discusses Iran, a significant portion of the public is tuning out.
The Media Insight Project survey was conducted February 5–8 and included 1,092 respondents. The margin of error for adults is 4.1 percentage points.
