How concerned are Americans about the partial shutdown of the federal government and whom do they blame for causing it? The Washington Post texted a nationally representative sample of 1,010 people on Wednesday to ask.

The Post’s poll finds significantly more Americans blame President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans for the shutdown than Democrats, though many say they are not sure. People express moderate concern about the shutdown’s impact at this early stage, with “somewhat concerned” the most common answer. A large majority support Democrats’ call to extend federal health insurance subsidies in general, though just under half support the party demanding this if it extends the government shutdown.

This Washington Post poll was conducted by text message on Oct. 1, 2025, among a random sample of 1,010 U.S. adults from the SSRS Opinion Panel, an ongoing survey panel recruited through random sampling of U.S. households. The sample was weighted to match U.S. population demographics, partisanship and 2024 vote choice. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Analysis by Scott Clement and Emily Guskin. Design by Shikha Subramaniam. Development by Irfan Uraizee and Eric Lau. Editing by Dan Eggen, Maureen Linke, Betty Chavarria and Madison Walls. Copy editing by Angela Mecca.