ICE Nearly Twice as Popular as Socialism Heading Into Midterms, New NBC Poll Reveals
(Photos via: NDZ/STAR MAX/IPx and AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration and the rise of socialist candidates within the Democratic Party have been two major news topics this year, which makes this finding from a new NBC poll all the more interesting: ICE is 86% more popular than socialism heading into the midterms.
The Sunday poll showed both are fairly unpopular with the American public. But socialism is really loathed, with only 21% of registered voters saying they have a “very positive” or “somewhat positive” view of Karl Marx’s ideology. ICE, for comparison, was viewed positively by 39% of Americans.
Looking at it from the opposite angle, 51% of voters said they had a negative view of ICE, and 52% said they had a negative view of socialism. ICE’s favorability is unchanged from October 2025 and up slightly from earlier this year, while socialism has gained 3 favorability points when compared to last fall and early ’26.
The results were based on a survey of 1,000 registered voters between Sept. 11-15.
NBC’s poll comes as several democratic socialists won primaries over the summer, leading to candidates like Melat Kiros (D) in Colorado, Angie Nixon (D) in Florida, and Claire Valdez (D) now aiming to win Congressional seats in November.
As socialist candidates have gained traction among the Dems, President Donald Trump has ramped up his criticism. He started off by sarcastically congratulated New York City Mayor and proud dem socialist Zohran Mamdani on getting “3 solid Communists” elected in NYC back in June, before getting a bit more serious about it.
He later warned the communists are starting to make “their move” in the USA, and he called socialism and communism a “cancer” which must be dealt with ASAP during his Fourth of July address. Trump followed that up by saying it is really easy to understand: “With communism, everything turns to sh*t!”
Still, Trump and Mamdani are set to meet in NYC on Monday — right after the mayor sued the federal government for its push to remove illegal immigrants. Mamdani said the government has been waging a “campaign of violence and terror” since the president returned to Washington, D.C.
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