Majority of Americans Think Trump Admin Should Obey Court Orders But MAGAs Are Split: Poll

A vast majority of Americans believe the Trump administration should follow rulings from federal courts, while MAGA voters are split, a new poll shows. The conclusion comes as experts and voters alike question whether the Trump administration is willingly ignoring court orders to advance its agenda.

The new results come from a recently published NBC News Decision Desk poll, powered by SurveyMonkey. The study was conducted online from May 30 to June 10 among a national sample of 19,410 adults ages 18 and over. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.

According to the survey, 81% of U.S. adults say that if a federal court rules that an administration action is illegal, then the administration has to follow its ruling, while 19% say the administration can ignore the ruling and continue its action.

Looking further, Democrats are almost unanimous on the issue, with 96% saying the administration has to follow court orders. Meanwhile, 87% of independents say the administration should do the same, and 13% say it can ignore them.

But looking at staunch MAGA Republicans, the divide is sharper, with 50% of the respondents saying the administration should follow court orders and 50% saying it can ignore them.

Moreover, looking at the highest court of the country, the Supreme Court— which is currently housed by six judges considered conservative justices and three liberal ones— the public seems to have more of a mixed reaction.

The poll found that 55% of Americans have favorable opinions of the Supreme Court, while 45% view it unfavorably. In this group, Republicans tend to be more supportive than Democrats: 75% view it favorably, compared with 34% with favorable views among Democrats.

One key finding in this section is that Americans generally don't hold strong views of the Supreme Court currently: 11% have strongly favorable opinions, while 12% are strongly unfavorable. The large remainder rates the court as "somewhat favorably or unfavorably, NBC News reports.

The poll comes as the White House, as well as Trump supporters, question whether the executive branch should follow the orders of the judicial one amid the administration opting to carry out an unprecedented amount of executive actions at rapid speed to advance their agenda.

Most notably, the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration back in April to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant living in Maryland who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador despite having legal protections. The administration ignored the ruling for nearly two months, saying it was out of their hands to bring him back. Last week, however, Abrego Garcia was brought back to the U.S. to face federal charges alleging human smuggling.