America Speaks with Frank Luntz (Video)

‘On fire’: Trump voters evaluate first 3 months of Trump’s second term

President Donald Trump sparked nationwide controversy with a barrage of executive orders as soon as he returned to the White House to commence his second term on Jan. 20, 2025. Since then, Republicans in Congress have been largely supportive of Trump’s initiatives. However, a series of escalating crises has begun to fracture Republican support of the president both within Congress and among the wider U.S. public.
Watch the above 27-minute episode of America Speaks as pollster and political analyst Dr. Frank Luntz asks Trump voters to share their opinions of the president’s performance in his first 90 days back in the Oval Office for his second term.

‘Soft power’: Americans debate US foreign aid cuts

In a typical year, the United States spends between 0.4% to 1.4% of its federal budget on international aid. In 2023, the most recent year for which data is largely complete, that worked out to be around $79 billion, or 1.2%. Much of that aid includes life-saving food and medical supplies, but it also funds clinics, provides for emergency services and helps reduce armed conflicts.
Recently, the Trump administration dramatically reduced funding for the chief agencies charged with distributing U.S. foreign aid, and is now formally dismantling the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The administration also cut U.S. funding to the World Food Programme (WFP) in what the United Nations agency called “a death sentence” for millions of humans around the world. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) maintains that these cancellations are justified for “the convenience of the U.S. Government.”
Watch the above 28-minute episode of America Speaks as pollster and political analyst Dr. Frank Luntz asks Americans to share their opinions, questions and concerns regarding recent cuts to U.S. foreign aid, how those cuts might impact the projection of American soft power, and what they think the correct path forward should be from here.

‘Time for change’: Democrats debate their party’s future

After losing the White House and control of the Senate in the 2024 election — while facing record-low approval ratings — the Democratic Party is now debating its future leadership and strategy for handling President Donald Trump’s second term. While Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ., recently gained attention with a record-breaking speech, other “rising stars” are vying to lead the Democratic Party.
Watch the 22-minute America Speaks video above, where pollster and political analyst Dr. Frank Luntz talks with Democrats about the future of the party and the viability of politicians such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY., and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

‘Broken’: Democrats reflect on state of their party

Last November, Democrats lost the popular vote for the U.S. presidency for the first time in 20 years against a divisive Republican candidate who had nearly been barred from politics for life over his alleged role in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. That defeat shocked the Democratic Party and its supporters, and some analysts say that Democrats today remain in a state of traumatized paralysis even as President Trump rapidly pursues a highly controversial partisan agenda.
American liberals split even further in recent weeks, after some Senate Democrats backed a heavily Republican budget in order to avert a government shutdown, a move criticized by the more progressive wing of the party. The center-left defends that decision, however, arguing that a shutdown would have made the current American crisis even worse.
Watch the above 33-minute video of America Speaks as pollster and political analyst Dr. Frank Luntz asks American Democrats to share what they think is wrong with their party, how they can correct course for the future, and how to resist what they say is the dictatorship of Donald Trump.

‘Needs to be strategic’: Americans talk Trump tariffs

Tariffs have emerged as a key component of President Trump’s economic plan for the United States, with sweeping levies imposed upon Mexican, Canadian and Chinese goods shortly after the president began his second term, and with future tariffs expected on European goods. The returning president has long campaigned on tariffs, and sought to implement them to a lesser extent during his first term, as well.
But with American companies and workers at risk, the American stock market tumbling and traditional U.S. allies around the world reacting sharply, some Americans have criticized the president’s tariff policies.
Watch the above 25-minute episode of America Speaks as pollster and political analyst Dr. Frank Luntz asks Americans to share their opinions on Trump’s tariff policies, and whether they think those policies as a whole are good or bad for the future of the United States.

‘Good’ or ‘Bad’: Americans debate billionaires and taxes

For years, the American public policy debate around billionaires has revolved around questions of wealth inequality, with hardline critics arguing that billionaires should be taxed out of existence to raise living standards for all Americans and center-left leaders like former President Biden instead proposing a milder 25% “billionaire tax.” But that debate is even further divided between party lines.
Republicans have argued for lower taxes on the very wealthy and express less concern over economic inequality than Democrats do, while Democrats have argued for additional tax brackets for the wealthiest Americans and have consistently ranked economic inequality as one of their top concerns.
Recently, that debate has overlapped with concerns about the actions of one man, Elon Musk. Musk has played a definitive but controversial role in President Trump’s new administration after spending at least $277 million to help him defeat Kamala Harris in the U.S. 2024 presidential race, inadvertently recentering the debate on economic inequality and the role of money in U.S. politics around himself.
Musk’s support of other far-right parties in nations like Germany has also prompted foreign parliaments and heads of state to take action to secure their own political systems against the kind of influence that Musk now exerts in the United States.
Watch the above 22-minute episode of America Speaks as pollster and political analyst Dr. Frank Luntz asks a group of Americans to share their perceptions of U.S. billionaires, Elon Musk, tax policy, and the role of billionaires in U.S. politics and economics.

‘Division’: Americans react to Trump address to Congress

On March 4, 2025, President Donald Trump delivered a 100-minute address to Congress, drawing sharply divided reactions from Democrats and Republicans. He tackled a range of contentious issues, including immigration, economic policy and national defense.
Watch the above 37-minute episode of America Speaks as pollster and political analyst Dr. Frank Luntz asks a unique group of American voters — those who supported and opposed the president across two elections — to share their reactions to his address.

‘Overblown’: Americans debate the merits of DEI policies

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) has emerged as a controversial subject not only in U.S. politics but also in corporate and academic debates and across American culture as a whole. An overwhelming majority of Americanssay that one’s individual life circumstances largely determine that individual’s success, as opposed to simply hard work and merit, and yet Americans across the political spectrum share an aspiration for meritocracy, even if that goal seems far away. Whether certain DEI policies move us closer towards or further away from that goal is often at the heart of these debates.
 
Watch the above 24-minute episode of America Speaks where pollster and political analyst Dr. Frank Luntzinterviews a focus group of Americans for their opinions on the culture and politics of DEI and on whether they think DEI programs have a mostly positive or negative impact on the goal of meritocracy.

‘Biased’: What Americans think of ‘mainstream media’

There’s been an increase in new independent media voices over the past few decades, amplified especially in recent years by the rise of the internet and online media. Those trends, together with increasing financial difficulties for legacy newsrooms, have contributed to the relative decline of many mainstream news outlets and to the collapse of local investigative journalism.
Added to these difficulties are wide-ranging accusations of bias, accessibility and sensationalism that news media professionals have sometimes struggled to address. More and more Americans are now gaining their news from social media or from “news influencers,” but this is not only an American trend. A United Nations study published late last year warned that roughly two-thirds of “digital content creators” around the world do not verify their information before publishing it.
Watch the above 22-minute episode of America Speaks as pollster and political analyst Dr. Frank Luntz asks Americans to share their opinions on the news media industry and where they think they should go to for their news.

‘Getting rid of them’: Americans discuss Trump and immigration

Cracking down on immigration was one of Donald Trump’s top 2024 presidential campaign promises, and he has sought to ramp up U.S. deportations and border security efforts since his return to the White House last month. Some proponents of stricter immigration systems have applauded those efforts, while critics protest that they are cruel, inhumane, unnecessary and ultimately bad for the U.S. economy.
Watch this 29-minute episode of America Speaks as pollster and political analyst Dr. Frank Luntz asks a focus group of Americans to share their opinions on immigration issues and how they think President Trump has been doing on immigration in his first month back at the Oval Office.