Most AAPI adults don't support cutting agencies and want a focus on
costs: AP-NORC/AAPI Data poll
[March 12, 2025]
By TERRY TANG and LINLEY SANDERS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific
Islanders do not agree with the strategy of putting entire federal
agencies on the chopping block, nor are they broadly on board with mass
layoffs of federal workers, according to a new poll.
The survey, released Wednesday from AAPI Data and The Associated Press-NORC
Center for Public Affairs Research, shows that AAPI adults want the
government to concentrate more on everyday costs. They feel the federal
government should do more to address high prices. About 8 in 10 AAPI
adults say the federal government should make health care costs “a high
priority," while about 7 in 10 say the same about the cost of food, and
roughly 6 in 10 feel similarly about housing.
The poll is part of an ongoing project exploring the views of Asian
Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, whose views are
usually not highlighted in other surveys because of small sample sizes
and lack of linguistic representation.
The results come as President Donald Trump continues what his
administration says are cost-cutting measures under the newly formed
Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, led by adviser Elon Musk.
This has included layoffs of thousands of government workers and
discussion of dismantling entire agencies like the Department of
Education.
About 6 in 10 AAPI adults “strongly” or “somewhat” oppose eliminating
entire federal agencies, while about 1 in 10 are in favor, which is
slightly below the roughly 2 in 10 U.S. adults overall who expressed the
same sentiments in a January AP-NORC poll. About 3 in 10 are neutral,
saying they neither favor nor oppose this move. Nearly half oppose
eliminating a large number of federal jobs, while about one-quarter are
in favor.
The recent cuts have left Celeste Hong, a 56-year-old registered
Democrat living in Los Angeles, feeling angry about where the
cost-saving efforts have focused.
“Understandably, people don’t like inefficiency and waste. Well, I kind
of feel the Pentagon is the most wasteful area of our federal
government,” Hong said.
She thinks the government isn't concentrating enough on lowering the
costs of health care, child care and food. Hong worries Trump's tariff
policies will end up increasing costs.
“You know, I can afford to absorb an extra cost,” said Hong, who is
semi-retired. “But, what about the family of four whom you know is
living paycheck to paycheck?”
The poll found that — amid nationwide problems that often cannot be
solved easily — there are about two-thirds of AAPI adults who think the
country is “spending too little” on improvements for the nation's
education system. Around 6 in 10 say the same about improving the
nation's health, protecting the environment and addressing the problem
of homelessness.
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Elon Musk speaks during an event with President Donald Trump in the
Oval Office at the White House, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP
Photo/Alex Brandon)
There is one area where more AAPI adults see spending as excessive: Like
Hong, about half of AAPI adults say “too much” is being spent on the
military, armaments and defense.
Stacy Armstrong, 61, and a registered Republican in Bay City, Michigan,
is an exception — he thinks the government is not spending enough on
defense. He thinks more money should also go toward higher education and
health care. Spending inefficiencies, in his view, stem from aid to
other countries like Ukraine.
“We need to take care of our own,” said Armstrong, who is half Japanese.
“I think it’s an important thing, but I think there’s other countries
that can help out, too. We need to at least reduce it drastically, if
not cut it off altogether.”
But Armstrong, who voted for Trump last year, thinks it's wrong to
excise federal agencies. To him, it would be better if the Trump
administration could instead work to streamline or consolidate
operations. However, he added he's not privy to information the
administration has and said every president has to make hard choices to
get results.
“I know he’s going to do some good things,” Armstrong said.
Karthick Ramakrishnan, executive director of AAPI Data and researcher at
the University of California, Berkeley, said it's not surprising that
some conservative AAPI adults would hold nuanced views on government
spending, including opposition to dismantling federal agencies or a
desire for greater government spending in some areas.
AAPI adults “tend to be focused on solutions and less so on
partisanship,” Ramakrishnan said.
At the same time, they may be willing to give the Trump administration a
chance to keep trying new strategies to save money. AAPI voters, who are
more Democratic-leaning than the electorate as a whole, shifted slightly
to the right in November.
“A certain chunk of voters were persuaded that the Republican Party
would do a better job on the issues and the economy,” Ramakrishnan said.
___
The poll of 1,170 U.S. adults who are Asian American, Native Hawaiian
and Pacific Islanders was conducted Feb. 4-11, 2025, using a sample
drawn from NORC’s probability-based Amplify AAPI Panel, designed to be
representative of the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific
Islander population. Online and telephone interviews were offered in
English, the Chinese dialects of Mandarin and Cantonese, Vietnamese and
Korean. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or
minus 4.7 percentage points.
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