Support for businesses taking public stances on issues drops: Gallup

Americans’ support for businesses taking public stances has dipped, according to a new poll, as many companies have curried favor with President Trump during his second term.

Forty-seven percent of 3,270 respondents to a Gallup survey said businesses should take a stance on current events, down from 51 percent in 2025 but up from 38 percent in 2024.

Gallup’s findings are based on its annual Business in Society survey , conducted with Bentley University in May. The poll has a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.

Fifty-three percent of respondents said businesses should not speak out publicly, representing the median result of the five instances Bentley and Gallup have asked the question.

Tech industry leaders have sought closer proximity to the president during his second term. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang were among those who attended a state dinner Trump hosted last week for Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Fifteen companies, including Amazon, Coinbase, Meta, Lockheed Martin and Mastercard, have contributed to at least three of the president’s projects , the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington reported in June .

There is a partisan divide in views on businesses taking public stances, according to the Bentley-Gallup survey. Sixty-two percent of Democrats said businesses should speak out, while 45 percent of independents and fewer than 3 in 10 Republicans said so.

Six in 10 respondents from ages 18-29 said companies should take public stances, with the percentage falling for each subsequent age group. Thirty-eight percent of people ages 60 and older said businesses should speak up.

Americans have even less interest in their employer taking a public stance, as 56 percent of employees said their company should not communicate a stance to them on topical issues.

But that marked a decline from 2025, when 6 in 10 employees said they wanted their company to remain silent.