Poll: A crack is emerging in Trump’s coalition over deportations

Poll: A crack is emerging in Trump’s coalition over deportations - POLITICO

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The POLITICO Poll

Poll: A crack is emerging in Trump’s coalition over deportations

The president’s most loyal supporters are more inclined than other Trump voters to support a tough immigration posture — but new POLITICO Poll results show there are limits.

!Image collage of a protestor holding a sign "Democracy dies in silence," an ICE officer's badge and Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.)

Illustration by Anna Wiederkehr/POLITICO (source images via Getty)

By Myah Ward and Erin Doherty

09/25/2026 10:00 AM EDT

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President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign is running into resistance within his own voter coalition, as more and more Republican candidates publicly break with him ahead of the November election.

New results from The POLITICO Poll help explain why: Non-MAGA Trump voters are more than twice as likely as self-identified MAGA Trump voters to say his mass deportation campaign is too aggressive, 31% to 14%. While roughly similar shares of both groups believe Trump’s campaign is about right, the MAGA base wants him to go even further: 36% of MAGA Trump voters say his campaign is not aggressive *enough*, compared with 23% of non-MAGA Trump voters.

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This article is part of an ongoing project from POLITICO and Public First, an independent polling company headquartered in London, to measure public opinion across a broad range of policy areas.

You can find new surveys and analysis each month at politico.com/poll.

Have questions or comments? Ideas for future surveys? Email us at [email protected].

Meanwhile, support across Trump’s entire voter coalition falls when it comes to deporting people beyond the most violent offenders, such as those with minor criminal offenses or who have been living in the U.S. for years without legal status.

The new survey, conducted by London-based Public First, reveals how Trump’s immigration agenda — which has long been one of his signature political issues and a reliable GOP rallying point — has divided the very coalition that helped power his two presidential wins. The president’s MAGA loyalists are still more inclined than other Trump voters to support a tougher immigration posture, but there are clear limits to how far voters want the administration to go.