In a new analysis of which side is winning the government shutdown public relations war, more voters agree with Republicans that the Democrats are siding with illegal immigrants and not Main Street Americans.
In the latest Rasmussen Reports survey shared with Washington Secrets, 49% of likely voters agreed with White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller‘s recent statement that “Democrats shut down the government to give hundreds of billions of free healthcare to illegal aliens, including the millions of illegal aliens to whom [former President Joe] Biden [and the] Democrats gave illegal amnesty.”
Agreement from Republicans, at 76%, helped tilt the overall results, which showed 44% disagree with Miller, the architect of President Donald Trump’s border policies.
On the opposite side, 66% of Democratic likely voters disagreed with Miller.
LOL.
"But muh shutdown!"
America doesn't give a CRAP
pic.twitter.com/T8KPwjreZF
— Mark Mitchell, Rasmussen Reports (@honestpollster) October 8, 2025
While the House has approved a spending bill that would reopen the government, action in the Senate has been stalled over a fight in which Democrats are seeking to continue COVID-era Obamacare subsidies that Republicans claim benefit some illegal immigrants.
Republicans have urged Democrats to agree to the House plan and then enter negotiations over the subsidies for a future spending bill vote. But they are using the shutdown to pressure Republicans to cave in.
The numbers were even closer on the question of which side is to blame for the shutdown. On that, Democrats came out on top as 41% blamed Republicans and 37% blamed the Democrats. A sizable 18% blamed both sides.
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Despite the media’s focus on the shutdown with hyped-up stories of severe impacts to many, most said they haven’t seen any impact of the short shutdown. Just 17% said that they have felt a “major impact,” while 78% said that they have felt no or a minor impact.
And with that media attention on the shutdown, most can’t ignore it, said Rasmussen. “Eighty-six percent (86%) of voters have been closely following news reports about the government shutdown, including 49% who say they’ve followed the news ‘very closely.’ Among those who have followed news about the shutdown ‘very closely,’ 52% agree with the quote from Miller,” said the pollster.
