A fresh national survey has uncovered a striking pattern in American news consumption habits: roughly 60% of adults across the country make deliberate efforts to sidestep coverage of President Donald Trump either frequently or occasionally.
The research, conducted by the Media Insight Project, reveals sharp contrasts between political affiliations when it comes to news engagement and emotional responses to media coverage.
Take Denver resident Don Cohen, a 72-year-old retiree who dedicates approximately two and a half hours daily to news consumption through his iPad and television broadcasts. Despite his extensive media habits, Cohen acknowledges his desire to escape Trump-related stories.
“It would be to avoid media,” Cohen explained. The independent voter has maintained his opposition to Trump since the 2016 presidential campaign announcement.
The survey data indicates that Democrats and Republicans experience vastly different emotional reactions to news consumption. Republican voters are significantly more inclined to describe their news intake as providing an optimistic worldview, while Democratic voters rarely report feeling hopeful after consuming media.
David Sterrett, who serves as a principal research scientist at the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and participated in the project, suggests Democrats might be engaging in unrealistic expectations about avoiding Trump coverage.
“They would like to avoid Trump news, but they’re probably not because most national politics news is somewhat connected to the president,” Sterrett observed.
The research found that Democratic voters demonstrate greater confidence in media organizations, especially national news outlets, compared to their Republican counterparts. Democrats also show higher rates of regular engagement with national political coverage.
However, Republicans express more positive feelings about their news consumption, while Democrats frequently describe media as overly stressful to engage with.
Approximately two-thirds of both Democratic and independent voters report making active attempts to avoid Trump-related stories either often or sometimes. Fernando Ocegueda, a 50-year-old phlebotomist from Los Angeles and registered Democrat, recently reduced his political news consumption for this exact reason.
“I don’t agree with his decisions,” Ocegueda said regarding the president. “I don’t think he’s fit, so I don’t even want to bother in paying attention to what he has to say.”
Cohen believes the president has generated widespread instability that triggers defensive responses in many Americans. He theorizes this anxiety paradoxically drives continued news consumption.
“People don’t want to know, but they sort of want to know, because of the imminent sense of threat that is attached to him,” Cohen explained. “You know it’s a train wreck, and you just can’t take your eyes off of it.”
The avoidance pattern extends beyond Democratic voters. Roughly half of Republican respondents also reported frequently or occasionally trying to avoid Trump news coverage. Nicole Pratt, who describes herself as a moderate Republican, exemplifies this group.
The 62-year-old Torrance, California resident supports certain Trump administration initiatives and wants to stay informed, but has grown weary of stories focusing on what she perceives as presidential narcissism.
“His fights with other people, his arguments — I don’t bother with that anymore,” Pratt stated. “It’s like, I have other things to do.”
Sterrett suggests some Republicans claim to avoid Trump news not from fatigue with the president, but from distrust of conventional media sources.
“A lot of his followers do get news directly from him via social media, and his posts and announcements,” he noted.
Social media serves as a daily news source for approximately 40% of both Republican and Democratic voters, though both groups acknowledge the platform’s problems with accuracy.
Most voters from both parties assign significant responsibility to social media users for spreading false information about current events and important topics.
The parties diverge when assigning blame elsewhere. About 75% of Democrats hold politicians highly responsible for misinformation spread, compared to 65% of Republicans. Additionally, 64% of Democrats place substantial blame on social media companies like Facebook, Meta, X, and YouTube, while only 53% of Republicans share this view.
A majority of Democrats (58%) also attribute considerable responsibility for misinformation to artificial intelligence companies developing chatbots. Fewer Republicans (47%) view AI companies as responsible.
Meanwhile, most Republicans point to national news media as bearing significant responsibility for spreading false information about events and issues. Approximately half of Democrats agree with this assessment.
Independent voters show less overall engagement with news compared to party-affiliated Americans. About 80% of both Democrats and Republicans regularly follow various news topics, while only around 70% of independents maintain similar habits.
Beyond Trump-related coverage, voters from both parties show similar patterns in avoiding celebrity news, general news, or news on specific devices like social media or smartphones. Most Americans from both political sides occasionally try to avoid news discussions with friends and family.
Despite partisan differences in news preferences, Sterrett notes the survey reveals some common ground. Americans from both parties show similar interest in following sports, weather, and crime coverage.
“Especially when it comes to local issues and the stuff that affects people’s daily lives, it does seem like Republicans and Democrats are following similar sources and following similar topics,” Sterrett concluded.
The Media Insight Project represents a collaboration between the American Press Institute, Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, the Local News Network at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism, and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The survey included 2,101 Americans: 1,092 adults aged 18 and older, plus 1,009 teenagers aged 13-17, though partisan questions were limited to adults. Adult polling occurred February 5-8, while teen polling ran February 2-16 using NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points for adults and plus or minus 4.3 percentage points for teenagers.
