Exclusive poll: Public doesn't trust Trump, GOP on drug prices

Americans don’t trust Republicans or President Trump to bring down drug prices, according to our latest Axios/SurveyMonkey poll. But what stands out isn't just that they don't do well — it's that they come in third, behind the Democrats and "neither."

By the numbers: Asked who they trust the most on the issue, the top three vote-getters were: Democrats (35%), neither party (30%), and then Trump and the Republicans (27%). That's fueled by Democrats and Republicans voting for their team while independents are deeply cynical about both parties.

There’s always a partisan split in any political poll, but man, this is more of a partisan Grand Canyon.

• Just 2% of Republicans said they trust Democrats to lower drug prices.
• Just 1% of Democrats said they trust Republicans.
• Independents don’t like anyone — 72% said they don’t trust either party on this issue.

The poll also found that Americans specifically don't have confidence in Trump's plan to lower drug prices, as we reported this weekend.

The bottom line: Trump and the GOP have a lot of work to do to gain confidence on an issue that's so important to Americans. But even the Democrats fall pretty far short of a mandate on an issue they'll push hard when they take control of the House.

Methodology: This analysis is based on a SurveyMonkey online poll conducted among adults ages 18 and older in the United States. Respondents were selected from the more than 2 million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform each day. Data have been weighted for age, race, sex, education, and geography using the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to reflect the demographic composition of the United States age 18 and over.

The survey was conducted Nov. 13-15 among 2,798 adults. The modeled error estimate for the full sample is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points and full crosstabs are available here.