In this week’s Economist/YouGov poll:

Plus polling on Congress, guns, marijuana, Trump's age and truthfulness, the East Wing of the White House, and the U.S. government owning shares in major companies.

  • 32% of Americans have a favorable opinion of their own member of Congress and 30% an unfavorable one, while 38% have no opinion
  • 56% of Americans say gun control laws should be made more strict than they are now, 24% say they should stay as they are, and 12% say they should be less strict
  • 59% of Americans say the use of marijuana should be legal in the U.S., while 27% say it should not
  • 53% of Americans say Trump is too old to be president and 36% say he is not
  • 21% of Americans support tearing down the East Wing of the White House to build a new ballroom that will seat 1,000 people, while 57% oppose it
  • 52% of Americans say that Trump often lies; 20% say he sometimes does, 12% say rarely, and 6% say never
  • 58% of Americans say it is a bad idea for the federal government to own shares in major U.S. companies; only 11% say it is a good idea

See the toplines and crosstabs for the August 7 - 10, 2026 Economist/YouGov Poll

Methodology: The August 7 - 10, 2026 poll was conducted among 1,589 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov's opt-in panel to be representative of U.S. adult citizens. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, U.S. region, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent's most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 33% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3%.

Image: Getty

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