Hawaii Business Surveys Show Trump Policies Unpopular
A pair of surveys show more opposition to administration policies than support in 10 key policy areas. But business owners and executives had a higher favorable rating than the general public.
The biggest overall story of 2025 in the U.S. was the policies of President Donald Trump’s administration. Hawaii Business Magazine selected 10 key areas of public policy and asked the respondents in two surveys to what degree they supported the policies or opposed them, then compared the results of the two surveys side by side.
FIG 9. *DK/DA: Didn’t know or didn’t answer | *Percentages do not always add to 100 due to rounding
The BOSS survey comprised 307 owners and executives of local businesses; the 808 Poll included 541 members of the general public in Hawaiʻi.
In both surveys, there was more opposition to the administration’s policies than support in each of the 10 policy areas. However, in the BOSS Survey of business owners and executives, support and opposition overall was almost equal.
In all 10 policy areas, opposition to the Trump administration’s actions was stronger among the general public than among business leaders. To make the same point in a different way, support for the administration in all 10 policy areas was stronger among businesspeople than the general public.
Here are the results, beginning with the policy area with the strongest support among local businesspeople and concluding with the area where support from businesspeople was weakest.
Here’s how the responses were scored: An answer of “strongly support” received a 5; “somewhat support” got a 4; “mixed feelings” a 3; “somewhat oppose” a 2; and “strongly oppose” a 1. An answer of “did not know” or no response at all was left out of the calculation.
The average score aggregates all the answers to each policy question, allowing easy comparison between different policy areas. The highest possible average score was 5.0 (if everyone answered “strongly support”) and the lowest 1.0 (if everyone answered “strongly opposed”) (fig. 9).
Digging Deeper Into the Numbers
Among members of the general public who were surveyed about the policies of President Trump’s administration, here are some population groups whose opinions differed from the average.
If you missed it, read the other parts to this BOSS Survey:
