The plethora of executive actions with which President Biden began his presidency are popular with the public, according to two recent polls.
In his first week in office, Biden announced at least 33 new policies that he will implement through the executive branch, according to a CNN count. Surveys conducted by Morning Consult and Ipsos since Biden’s first day in office have assessed public opinion on 14 of these policies. In all cases, more of the respondents favor policies than oppose them, and one majority support almost all policies.
Most of Biden’s executive actions are popular
Share of all respondents and Republican voters who support or oppose Biden’s 14 executive actions during his first week in office
| Support, support | Oppose | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Biden Executive Policy | All | GO P | All | GO P |
| Prohibiting discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation and gender identity † | 83% | 64% | 16% | 34% |
| Committing to the government’s focus on racial equality † | 77 | 52 | 21 | 45 |
| Requiring masks on federal property | 75 | 54 | 19 | 35 |
| Continued suspension of federal student loan repayments ‡ | 68 | 46 | 19 | 38 |
| Continuing the ban on evictions ‡ | 66 | 49 | 17 | 31 |
| Restarting the DACA program † | 65 | 33 | 33 | 66 |
| Returning to the World Health Organization | 62 | 29 | 30 | 61 |
| Commitment to the Paris climate agreement | 61 | 27 | 31 | 63 |
| Reviewing Trump’s public health and environment policies ‡ | 57 | 24 | 28 | 56 |
| Allowing noncitizens to be counted in the US Census † | 56 | 17 | 42 | 81 |
| Finishing construction of a new wall on the US-Mexico border | 53 | 14 | 40 | 80 |
| End the ban on travel to the US from some mainly Muslim / African nations | 52 | 16 | 40 | 75 |
| Enacting a moratorium on drilling at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge ‡ | 49 | 21 | 27 | 53 |
| Revoking the license for the Keystone gas pipeline ‡ | 43 | 15 | 32 | 60 |
And while the polls were not released to ask specifically about Biden’s executive to reverse the ban on transgender serving in the armed forces, previous research suggests that the action is also likely to be popular with the public.
The popularity of these policies is notable for a few reasons. First, Biden’s emphasis on trying to unify the country in his inaugural speech created a debate in political circles about what exactly constitutes “unity”. These first executive orders meet one definition – adopt policies that a clear majority of Americans support, which requires at least some Republicans to support them. In fact, some of these policies, such as requiring people to wear masks on federal properties, have plural support among Republicans. (On the other hand, many of Biden’s policies, such as trying to ensure that noncitizens are counted in the US Census, are extremely unpopular with Republicans.)
Second, the popularity of these orders with the public is another illustration of what public opinion has long suggested: Americans are divided into two fields of almost equal size in terms of electoral power – partly because structures like the Senate and the College Elections have diverted the vote to Republicans, at least in recent years – but that division does not always appear in terms of political issues. For example, protecting undocumented people brought to the U.S. as children from deportation (the DACA program) has long had reasonable support from people who vote and identify with the Republican Party, which tried to end DACA in the Trump era.
You may be skeptical of polls that look favorable to Democrats after many polls in 2016 and 2020 underestimated the strength of the Republican Party. But there are a number of recent examples of liberal policies supported by voters who also support Republican candidates. This happened last fall in Florida, where a proposal to raise the state minimum wage to $ 15 an hour won 61% support, but the presidential candidate in favor of that idea, Biden, received only 48%. Therefore, I tend to think that these numbers are reliable and that a block of Trump voters agrees with many of Biden’s new policies.
Third, the popularity of these orders suggests that Biden will rule differently from his predecessor. In the case of many of these orders, Trump has implemented a policy that polls have clearly shown to be unpopular and Biden is simply reversing that. Biden positioned himself during the Democratic primaries as a candidate who would avoid controversial ideas to attract more center voters. And we’ve only been in your presidency for a week, but it looks like Biden is trying to stick with his campaign approach.
That said, these initial poll numbers do not guarantee that Biden or his agenda will remain popular, nor that he will reshape federal policy as he wishes. These requests were the easiest fruits left to Biden by Trump – a lot of policies that Trump implemented that were unpopular and Biden could quickly reverse. There are probably not dozens of more popular policies and Biden could implement without going through Congress. In addition, Biden’s approval numbers are strong now, but those numbers may be the result of the traditional (albeit reduced) honeymoon period that presidents get at the start of their terms, as opposed to Americans saying they like Biden. Because policies.
Finally, because they are executive orders, these policies do not come with the power or money of legislation passed by Congress. So, Biden signing an executive order stating that his government will evaluate all policies to ensure that they improve the nation’s racial equity is one thing, but adopting policies to improve the nation’s racial equity is much more complicated.