WASHINGTON (AP) — As several of President-elect Donald Trump’s picks for top positions in his new administration come under scrutiny on Capitol Hill, a poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds Americans questioning their own doubts to have.
Relatively few Americans generally approve of Pete Hegseth, Trump’s choice to lead the Defense Department, or Tulsi Gabbard, his pick for intelligence chief, although a significant share do not know who those figures are. The other selections included in the poll, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Marco Rubio as Secretary of State, are better known but not much more popular among Americans in general.
Trump and his allies are pushing to confirm his picks from Republican senators, who are meeting with lawmakers before Trump returns to the White House next month. Given Republicans’ slim majority in the Senate, the stakes are high for any Trump pick.
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Only about 2 in 10 Americans approve of Hegseth’s nomination
Hegseth, an Army veteran and former Fox News commentator, has tried to plead his case amid allegations of excessive drinking and the revelation that he paid a settlement after being accused of a sexual assault that he denies. Trump has reiterated his support for Hegseth, who appears to have won over a number of senators who were once critical of his selection.
Hegseth is still an unknown quantity for many Americans. According to the poll, about four in ten people don’t know enough about him to give an opinion. But his selection is viewed more negatively than positively among Americans who know who he is. About 2 in 10 American adults approve of Hegseth being chosen for Trump’s Cabinet, while 36% disapprove and about 1 in 10 don’t know enough to have an opinion.
He has more support among Republicans, but it is not overwhelming. Many Republicans have no opinion about Hegseth, with about four in 10 saying they don’t know enough about him. About a third of Republicans approve of him as a choice, while 16% disagree. Another one in ten Republicans are roughly neutral, saying they neither approve nor disapprove of it.
These approval ratings among Republicans are at least slightly lower for Hegseth than for all other names in the poll.
Approval of Gabbard’s appointment is also low
Gabbard, who represented Hawaii for four terms as a Democrat in the House, sought the 2020 presidential nomination before leaving her party. She was one of Trump’s most sought-after surrogates in the 2024 campaign. Gabbard has faced new questions about her closeness to Syria amid the sudden end of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s long grip on power.
Gabbard is just as unknown as Hegseth, but Americans are slightly less likely to disapprove of her appointment. About 2 in 10 Americans approve of Trump’s choice of Gabbard, while about 3 in 10 disapprove. The rest either don’t know enough to say anything about it – about four in ten say this – or have a neutral opinion.
However, approval is slightly higher among Republicans than Hegseth’s. About 4 in 10 Republicans approve of the choice, while very few disapprove and 16% have a neutral view. As with Americans in general, about four in ten Republicans don’t know enough to say anything about this.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is better known – and less loved
A scion of a famous Democratic dynasty, Kennedy made a name for himself as an environmental lawyer who successfully attacked major corporations. In recent decades, he has increasingly devoted his energies to promoting claims about vaccines that contradict the overwhelming consensus of scientists. Trump has said he would give Kennedy a free hand on health policy — from drugs, vaccines and food safety to medical research and the social safety net programs Medicare and Medicaid.
Only 14% of Americans say they don’t know enough to have an opinion about Trump’s decision to name Kennedy, but that greater name recognition doesn’t translate into warmer feelings. About 4 in 10 Americans disapprove of Trump’s choice of Kennedy, while about 3 in 10 approve and 14% are neutral.
Once a contender for the Democratic presidential primaries, Kennedy has become something of a darling of the Republican Party, with a large majority of Republicans approving of him joining the Trump administration. About 6 in 10 Republicans approve, and only about 1 in 10 disapprove. About 2 in 10 are neutral, and about 1 in 10 don’t know enough about him to say anything about him.
Americans divided over Marco Rubio
In his third term in the Senate from Florida, Rubio has gone from a Trump rival for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination to one of his closest allies in Congress. Rubio is seen as having the new president’s ear on foreign policy issues, especially those related to Latin America.
Americans are divided over Rubio’s elevation to a key role in the Cabinet, with about 3 in 10 agreeing and a similar percentage disagreeing, while about 2 in 10 don’t know enough to comment on it and 15% neither approve nor disapprove.
Most Republicans, nearly six in ten, agree, making his selection among this group almost as popular as Kennedy’s. Only about 1 in 10 Republicans disagree, while 14% are neutral and about 2 in 10 don’t know enough to say anything about it.
Rubio, who is Cuban-American, earns more approval among Hispanic adults than some of Trump’s other high-profile choices, but he is still more likely to disapprove than approve.
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The poll of 1,251 adults was conducted December 5-9, 2024, using a sample from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults totals plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
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Kinnard reported from Columbia, South Carolina.
