Americans expect corporations, the wealthy, White people and other groups to gain influence under Trump

Americans expect several groups in society to gain influence – and others to lose it – under President Donald Trump’s new administration.

As was the case in Trump’s first term, large majorities of U.S. adults expect business corporations (70%) and wealthy people (65%) to gain influence in the president’s new administration. Many Americans also expect increased influence for:

• White people (60% gain influence)
• The military (57%)
• Men (55%)
• Evangelical Christians (48%)

Few say these groups will lose influence under Trump, according to a Pew Research Center survey of 5,086 adults conducted Jan. 27-Feb. 2.

How we did this

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to understand which groups the public views as likely to gain or lose influence with President Donald Trump taking office for a second term.

For this analysis, we surveyed 5,086 adults from Jan. 27 to Feb. 2, 2025. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.

Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology.

By contrast, overwhelming majorities expect transgender people (84%) and gay and lesbian people (76%) to lose influence under Trump. Large shares also expect influence to decline for:

• Hispanic people (62% lose influence)
• Poor people (56%)
• Black people (53%)

Americans’ views of how some other groups will fare over the next four years are more split. For instance, 39% of adults say younger people will lose influence, while 27% say they will gain influence and a third say they will not be affected by Trump taking office. The public is similarly divided when it comes to the influence of older people under Trump.

Views of which groups will gain or lose influence largely track with the public’s expectations eight years ago, at the start of Trump’s first term. In addition, Americans expect increased influence for many of the groups they expected to lose influence when President Joe Biden took office four years ago.

Partisan views of which groups will gain or lose influence in Washington

Republicans and Democrats have different expectations about who is likely to gain or lose influence in Washington with Trump in office.

Republicans and Republican-leaning independents

Republicans say most groups in our survey will either gain influence or that their influence will not be affected over the next four years. But they are particularly likely to expect the military (74%) and business corporations (59%) to gain influence in Washington.

By contrast, most Republicans say transgender people (77%) and gay and lesbian people (62%) will lose influence in Washington.

Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents

Overwhelming majorities of Democrats say that wealthy people (87%), business corporations (82%) and White people (78%) are likely to gain influence under Trump. Smaller majorities say men (69%) and evangelical Christians (57%) will gain influence. By a narrower margin, Democrats are also more likely to see the military gaining (42%) than losing (34%) influence in Trump’s second term.

Clear majorities of Democrats say most other groups will lose influence under the Trump administration.

Will ‘people like yourself’ gain or lose influence under Trump?

When asked about the influence of “people like yourself,” 41% of Americans say they think they will lose influence, while a similar share (37%) expect it will not change. About two-in-ten (21%) expect people like them will gain influence over the next four years.

Partisanship

Most Democrats (69%) – including 74% of liberal Democrats and 66% of moderate and conservative Democrats – think they will lose influence under Trump. Just 7% of Democrats say they are likely to gain it.

Among Republicans, 51% say people like them are unlikely to be affected by Trump’s presidency, while 35% say they will gain influence. Conservative Republicans (39%) are somewhat more likely than liberal and moderate Republicans (29%) to say they will gain influence – and they are far less likely to say they will lose it (6% vs. 23%).

Gender

Women are much more likely than men to think people like them will lose influence under Trump (47% vs. 34%).

Race and ethnicity

Black (66%), Hispanic (52%) and Asian (47%) adults are far more likely than White Americans (33%) to say people like them will lose influence. This marks a reversal of opinion from four years ago, shortly after Biden took office.

Age

Across age groups, only about two-in-ten say people like them will gain influence in Trump’s second administration. Americans ages 50 and older are more likely than adults under 50 to say people like them will be unaffected by Trump taking office (42% vs. 33%).

By comparison, adults under 50 are more likely than those 50 and older to say people like them will lose influence (44% vs. 38%).

Education

Americans without a college degree are slightly more likely than those with a bachelor’s degree to say people like them will gain influence under Trump (23% vs. 17%). Equal shares of each group say people like them will lose influence (41%), but college graduates are somewhat more likely than those without a four-year degree to say they will be unaffected (41% vs. 35%).

Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology.