The Donald Trump presidency has brought with it an unending torrent of major news events. Every week seems to deliver new leaks, gaffes, summits, summit cancellations, firings, hirings, and of course, tweets.
That has left many Americans feeling overwhelmed, a new survey from the Pew Research Center shows. Nearly 70% of people surveyed say they feel “worn out” by the news.
The numbers differ by political party affiliation, though. While both Republicans and Democrats tend to say they’re tired of the news, 77% of respondents who identified as Republican-leaning said they felt news fatigue. Just 61% of Democrats said the same.
It’s not clear what accounts for the difference. Perhaps Democrats who say they “like the amount of news” are experiencing schadenfreude at the abundance of stories pointing out disarray in the Trump administration and tracking the Russia probe. Or maybe they just enjoy reading the news more. Meanwhile, the president’s open disapproval of the press may have led Republicans to develop a more negative association with news.
Pew also found that white Americans say they experience news fatigue at much higher rates than people of other ethnicities.