Two things can be true at the same time.
First, the Trump administration’s threats to fight and possibly even prosecute Democrats for overzealously investigating the administration are probably posturing that matters little from a legal perspective.
But second: There is a risk in Democrats overzealously investigating the administration, from a political perspective.
And Democrats are already running into some hard choices on that front.
Polls show Americans are wary of investigating Trump too much
New polling reinforces that Democrats, who are coming off the high of last week’s blue wave, confront some risk in looking like they are overly consumed with investigating President Donald Trump and his administration.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted after the election asked Americans about a series of potential priorities for the first 100 days of the new Democratic majorities.
Out of eight options, investigating the Trump administration was about tied for the lowest priority. It ranked far behind things like lowering prices, ending the Iran war and regulating artificial intelligence. It even ranked behind immigration reform.
While 39 percent said they wanted the new Congress to focus “a great deal” (27 percent) or “quite a bit” (13 percent) on investigating the Trump administration, 40 percent wanted it to focus on that “not too much” (13 percent) or “not at all” (27 percent). The rest were in the middle or didn’t weigh in.
The only other priority that split Americans like that was addressing climate change and the environment. While 37 percent wanted to prioritize that, 35 percent did not.
The partisan differences are about what you’d expect, with Democrats much more likely to want Congress to prioritize investigations than Republicans. But even among Democrats, only around half (52 percent) want Congress to focus “a great deal” on that.
The findings echo a poll conducted just before the election by the Associated Press and NORC at the University of Chicago.
When asked how much of a priority various things should be for the new Congress, about 6 in 10 Americans wanted investigating the administration to be at least a priority. But only 36 percent wanted it to be a top priority.
As far as top priorities go, it ranked behind lowering the cost of living (80 percent), ending the Iran war (68 percent), reducing the federal deficit (47 percent) and finding common ground between Republicans and Democrats (43 percent).
Democrats have been somewhat hesitant
These numbers might help explain why Democrats appear a little uncertain about bringing down the hammer.
While incoming House Oversight Committee Chairman Robert Garcia repeatedly exclaimed “lawyer up” last week after his party won power, others have been more muted.
Lawmakers such as likely new House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries have been careful to emphasize that they seek “accountability” rather than “retribution” (the word Trump has infamously used for his efforts to get back at Democrats).
“They didn’t send us to Washington for political retribution; they sent us to Washington to lower costs, to root out corruption, to get this economy back on track,” Texas Sen.-elect James Talarico told CNN’s Erin Burnett last week. “And that needs to be our focus.”
And often when Democrats talk about accountability, they’ll link alleged Trump administration corruption to cost-of-living concerns — saying Trump and his allies have gotten rich even as regular Americans struggle.
Concerns about going too far flared up this week — particularly after House Republicans blocked an effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, which was led by outgoing GOP Rep. Thomas Massie but supported by Democratic leadership.
Incoming House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith said afterward that Democrats should “take a minute” to decide whether impeaching Hegseth when they take over Congress in January — and have plenty of votes in the House to do it — serves their “broader objectives.”
Rep.-elect Richard Ojeda of North Carolina, meanwhile, told CNN’s Laura Coates late Tuesday that impeaching Trump would mean that “we martyr him.”
Why Democrats need to choose wisely
There are some nuances in the numbers, though, that make these decisions difficult.
Americans, for instance, are quite concerned about corruption. The CNN Voter Poll showed more voters in the 2026 election said corruption was a crucial factor in their vote (55 percent) than said the same about the cost of living (49 percent).
And recent polls have also shown about two-thirds of Americans think Trump has used his office to enrich himself.
Perhaps Americans interpret “investigating the administration” as another endless series of probes that don’t lead to any concrete punishments — like the Russia investigations, Trump’s impeachments, etc. — when, in fact, the same people could be quite supportive of probes targeting government officials, including Trump, using their power to enrich themselves.
Indeed, a big part of Democrats’ dilemma isn’t so much choosing whether to investigate the administration, but choosing the right subjects since Trump’s lax approach to governmental ethics has given them so many options.
Perhaps impeaching Hegseth or even Trump doesn’t make much political sense, but probing the president’s suspiciously well-timed stock trades and his social media company selling early access to his market-moving posts does.
Maybe investigating former US Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle for allegedly selling influence and former top DOJ official Alina Habba for landing a $50 million employment agreement with a man who received a pardon around the same time, while still serving in the DOJ, would capture people’s attention. (Both women have denied wrongdoing, and Habba has since lost the contract, the New York Times reported.)
The real dilemma for Democrats is that there’s probably not much they can do with their newfound power besides investigations and accountability. It’s not like Trump, who’s already vowed to be “Mr. Veto,” is going to sign the legislation they produce, in all likelihood.
But the early signs suggest Democrats would be well-advised to choose their targets wisely — and make sure the American people see them doing other things, too.
