Many AA/PI adults expect more racist attacks and economic challenges under Trump.
A few weeks before Trump’s inauguration, we surveyed 1,600 AA/PI adults about their hopes and fears for the next four years. Our latest report reveals how AA/PI communities are bracing for rising discrimination, hate, and economic hardships — all while Trump advances an extreme anti-immigrant, anti-DEI agenda that’s already putting lives and livelihoods at risk.
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AA/PI adults indicate low support for Trump’s anti-immigrant policies, and are prepared to mobilize against them.
As President Trump approaches his first 100 days back in office, our latest report based on a survey conducted with NORC at the University of Chicago reveals deep and widespread concern among Asian American and Pacific Islander (AA/PI) communities about what lies ahead. Titled Bracing for Impact: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Confront Trump’s Return, the report draws on a nationally representative survey of nearly 1,600 AA/PI adults, and shows that just 1 in 10 AA/PI adults believe racial and economic conditions will improve over the next four years of Trump’s presidency.
The findings are stark: The majority of AA/PI adults expect an increase in hate and anti-immigrant sentiment— and our communities are already facing the consequences. Since January 1, 2025, our coalition has received reports of verbal harassment, threats, and violence, echoing the anti-immigrant rhetoric coming from President Trump and his closest allies.
Our data also shows low support for Trump’s anti-immigrant and anti-DEI agenda, including deportation policies, visa restrictions, and attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. Yet, nearly half or more of respondents remain unaware of the full scope of most of these harmful policies — revealing an urgent need for public education and mobilization.
Key findings
With fear mounting and our rights under threat, this report confirms what many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have long suspected: that our communities have a lot to lose under Trump’s leadership and that we are largely motivated to mobilize against it.
Only 1 in 10 AA/PI adults believe racial and economic conditions will improve under the Trump administration.
From growing hostility towards immigrants and rising racial tensions to foreign policies that negatively impact our communities, a majority of AA/PI adults believe these challenges will increase under the Trump administration. And though some have speculated that AA/PI voters shifted toward Trump for economic reasons, just 1 in 10 respondents believe their economic struggles will improve in 2025.
There is low support for anti-immigrant and anti-DEI policies.
Few AA/PI adults support the anti-immigrant and anti-DEI policies comprising Trump’s political agenda. For example, just 13% support targeting specific groups for deportation based on nationality; just 14% support limiting visas for researchers, students, and academics from specific countries; and just 21% support eliminating federal funding for programs promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in public institutions.
The biggest differences between AA/PI adults fall along party lines. AA/PI Republicans were more likely than Democrats or Independents to support anti-immigrant and anti-DEI policies. Still, even among Republicans, these policies are broadly unpopular — and a majority of people surveyed do not support them.
At the same time, many AA/PI adults are largely unfamiliar with the policies that threaten to impact their communities. At least half of AA/PI adults are unfamiliar with land ban legislation, visa limitations, elimination of federal funding for DEI programs, and targeted deportations based on nationality. This is a clear sign that a large proportion of AA/PI communities are still unaware of the full extent of the growing number of policies and federal actions that impact their lives.
Almost two-thirds (65%) of AA/PI adults say they are extremely or very likely to mobilize against hate and discrimination in 2025.
Even in the face of racist and anti-immigrant attacks, a majority of AA/PI adults say they are highly likely to take direct action to protect their civil rights, livelihoods, and public safety.
Although the most common policy action that AA/PI adults support is the increase of punishments for hate crimes and greater police presence, there is also a high level of support behind non-carceral solutions to hate.
In fact, the majority of AA/PI adults (65%) back at least one solution outside of the criminal justice system.
Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda has already started to fuel hate and discrimination.
Of the hate acts reported to Stop AAPI Hate since January 1, 2025, there are numerous examples of anti-AA/PI racism fueled by Trump’s discriminatory policies and rhetoric.
I was showing a group a mural that includes Wong Kim Ark and was talking about his Supreme Court case and how he argued, ‘I was born here,’ when he wasn’t allowed to re-enter the U.S. A man who was walking by yelled, ‘Are you sure you were born here? I don’t think so, b-tch’ and kept walking away. I tried to yell, ‘I WAS born here!’ But he was already gone and didn’t care.
Woman, Taiwanese, California
While out to eat with a friend at a Thai restaurant, a random stranger approached us and then proceeded to accost me … He proceeded to work himself into an angry froth, calling me ‘f-gg-t’ (because I wear earrings) and ‘lesbian,’ and told me that Trump was President and I would have to ‘go home’ and ‘do bharatanatyam in my living room.’ He also threatened to kick my -ss and said he would wait for us outside the restaurant.
Man, Indian, Virginia
[Someone] called me a Chinese peasant [echoing the words of J.D. Vance] at [a big box store]. She said I shouldn’t be in this country and need to go back to my country. I told her that I was born here and I’m not a peasant and she needs to be more respectful. She kept yelling at me about how I need to be a peasant in my own country.
Woman, Chinese, Washington
As AA/PI communities confront Trump’s return to office, a majority fear that the racial and economic challenges they face will only get worse — and those fears are already becoming a reality. The anti-immigrant and anti-DEI policies we asked respondents about in January 2025 are quickly materializing, with Trump wasting no time to push dangerous and discriminatory measures to restrict immigration, basic rights, and diversity.
But here’s the good news: Support for Trump’s agenda is overwhelmingly low across AA/PI communities, and people are motivated to fight back.
We are able to continue publishing research like this because of the generous support of people like you.
Your donation to Stop AAPI Hate helps us conduct research and analysis on South Asian and other AA/PI communities — and sustains our fight to build a fairer, more equitable future for all.
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