Poll Shows Americans Overwhelmingly Oppose Naming Government Buildings After Trump While in Office

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

A poll by the Pew Research Center shows that the efforts to rename government buildings after President Donald Trump is overwhelmingly unpopular, even with Republicans.

The polling numbers for Trump and the GOP have been brutal as his second term has progressed, with his immigration crackdown cratering his support, the handling of the Epstein files getting abysmal marks, and even Americans’ views on his handling of the economy taking body blows. The president’s recent social media posts and public comments about the Iran war sparked new chatter, with reporters openly asking him about his “mental health” and critics accusing him of advocating for war crimes.

Meanwhile, Trump’s name has been added to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts and the Palm Beach International Airport, a proposed commemorative coin, and more. Critics have denounced these moves not just over opposition to Trump’s political position, but have also voiced a distaste for naming anything after someone who is still alive, much less still in office.

This latest Pew poll surveyed 5,103 U.S. adults from April 20 through 26, 2026 as part of Pew’s American Trends Panel, including 4,900 who were polled online and 203 who were polled via live telephone calls. The margin of error was +/- 1.6 percentage points.

When asked about “naming government buildings after Donald Trump,” only 9% of poll respondents thought that would be acceptable while he was president, 21% said only after he was no longer president, 50% said it was not acceptable, and 19% said not sure.

Image via Pew Research Center.

Republicans were, as expected, more favorable toward renaming buildings after Trump, but a strong majority still did not think that it was appropriate to do so while he was in office. Only 17% of Republicans said it would be acceptable to name government buildings after Trump while he was still in office and only 33% said it would be acceptable after his presidency ended. Twenty-one percent of Republicans said it would not be acceptable at all, and 31% said not sure.

For Democrats, a mere 3% said it was acceptable to name government buildings after Trump while he’s still in office, 11% thought it would be acceptable after he was out, and 77% said it would never be acceptable. Democrats were “far less likely than Republicans to express uncertainty on this question,” Pew noted, with only 9% saying they were not sure about this question.

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