Indian Americans largely disapprove of Trump’s first year job performance, but Democrats do not benefit: Survey

A significant majority of Indian Americans disapprove of U.S. President Donald Trump’s first year job performance as per the results of a new survey, Indian Americans in a Time of Turbulence, released on Thursday (February 19, 2026) by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. However, the disapproval for Mr. Trump’s job performance has not translated into gains for the Democratic Party, which, while having stronger support among Indian Americans relative to the Republican party, is witnessing lower levels of support from this demographic.

Just 29% of Indian Americans approved of Mr. Trump’s performance – the same proportion compared to 2020. The results are based on the 2026 Indian American Attitudes Survey (IAAS), which surveyed the attitudes of 1000 Indian American adults between November 25, 2025, and January 6, 2026. The survey data have a margin of error of +/- 3.6%.

In terms of party affiliation, the Democratic Party has seen a decline in support among Indian Americans from 52%(2020) to 48% (2024) and then to 46%(2026). The affiliation to the Republican Party, while on the up from 15% to 19% between 2020 and 2024, has remained at 19% in 2026. More than a quarter or 29% of Indian Americans surveyed identified as Independent, up from 23% in 2020 and 25% in 2024, suggesting that the loss to the Democratic party in support has caused an increase in the share of Independents.

The Indian American approval rates for Mr. Trump’s first year in office are lower (disapproval rates are higher) compared to all Americans, for whom data was collected in a contemporaneous survey by YouGov.

Disapproval rates for Trump’s policies

Broken down by policy areas, the disapproval rates are 64% for immigration policies, 68% for domestic economic policy and 70% for international economic policy (trade, tariffs, sanctions).

However, there is a sharp contrast across party lines, i.e., among Indian Americans who are Republicans and those who are Democrats. A large majority of Republican Indian Americans, 76% people, approved of Mr. Trump’s immigration policies and 62% approved of his international economic policies. Some 84% of Indian American Democrats disapproved of Mr. Trump’s immigration policies, and 86% disapproved of his international economic policies.

Indian Americans on immigration policies

Given the controversies and impact on the Indian American community of the administration’s immigration policies, the survey looks at five areas: arresting undocumented immigrants who do not have a criminal record, conducting raids at the workplace, deporting immigrants to third countries, actions to end birthright citizenship and the $100,000 H-1B (skilled worker visas) fee for new petitions.

A sizeable majority of Democrats oppose all five categories of policies, while Republicans in general showed lower support for each of these than for immigration policy as a whole, though a majority of Indian American Republicans, more often than not, still supported these individual policies.

Indian Americans on U.S. relations with India

Only 20% of Indian Americans approve of Mr. Trump’s handling of relations with India, while 55% disapprove. What is noticeable, as per the authors is that a quarter of respondents said “don’t know” to this question, suggesting the issue is of limited importance to many Indian Americans. Approval for the handling of the India relationship was at 35% in 2020 at the end of the first Trump administration and 48% in 2024 at the end of the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden.

Between 2024 and 2026, younger Indian Americans (18-29) shifted back to the Democrats, as per the survey. This is significant given the increased support for Mr. Trump in the November 2024 election from younger Americans. Those over 50 shifted towards the Republicans. Support for the Democratic party declined significantly among those without a college degree and remained stable for those with a college degree. Indian Americans with an income above $100,000 moved towards the Democratic party.

Across religious groups in the Indian American population, Hindus are more Democrat leaning while Christians are more Republican leaning. In fact between 2024 and 2026, Christian Indian American support for the Republican party increased 33% to 43% while the support from Hindus and Muslims declined.

The survey report was authored by Sumitra Badrinathan, Devesh Kapur, Andy Robaina and Milan Vaishnav.