Polls show Trump is out of step with Americans on AI. It might not matter in this fall's elections.

President Trump's hardline defense of data centers and rapid artificial intelligence development is deeply at odds with Americans' views, recent polling has found, but the data also suggests the issue might not move many votes this fall.

This dynamic has been evident in multiple polls and comes as Americans are still digesting the scope of AI dangers . The fast-moving issue has spurred a growing national debate about the need for regulation to slow the pace of development of the most advanced AI models.

An emblematic set of data came this week from Who Decides, a group recently founded to elevate the issue of AI in the upcoming midterms.

In an online survey , 70% of respondents said AI development is going too fast or even needs to be rolled back. But that same data also showed AI was the least salient issue among 12 listed in the survey, which was conducted Sept. 8-11.

Just 4% of respondents described AI as "the single most important issue to me," far below the 38% of respondents who said the same about the cost of living.

Alyssa Cass, an adviser to Who Decides, noted in an interview that 51% of respondents described AI as at least a very important issue to them and that she expected the underlying number to grow — but not necessarily in concert with the most dire predictions for AI.

"As adoption increases and as the public becomes aware that the question of AI isn't just one of whether it's going to wipe out humanity, but how it's going to impact their day-to-day issues that they already care about," she said. "We have every expectation that it becomes even more of a conversation, even more relevant."

Yet the consequences for the 2026 elections — looming in less than seven weeks — are far from clear. Overall polling is clearly more favorable to Democrats, driven by other issues.

Republican approval ratings, meanwhile, are being driven downward by other aspects of Trump's economic agenda . A new survey from the Cato Institute published on Thursday, for example, found that Americans heavily disapprove of tariffs, with 75% saying the issue will matter to their vote this fall.

'Voters just don't quite know what to do with this issue yet'

The AI polls suggest there is little partisan advantage for either party. In the Who Decides survey, 41% said that neither party had a plan to address the future of AI, while the rest were nearly evenly split between whether Democrats (32%) or Republicans (27%) had the better plan.

Democratic party leaders appear to acknowledge this lack of an advantage as a problem, though without a clear agenda.