Almost 60 per cent of Americans believe President-elect Donald Trump ought to compromise with Democrats in Congress if they are strongly opposed to elements of his agenda, a new Washington Post-Schar School national poll has found.

Meanwhile, a mere 29 per cent of Americans say Mr Trump has a mandate to pursue the policies he promised during the presidential campaign, significantly less than the 50 per cent who believed President Barack Obama had such a mandate in 2008, and the 41 per cent who said the same of George W Bush following his narrow and contested election victory in 2000.

Following Mr Trump’s shock victory in last week’s election, Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said the businessman had “earned a mandate,” with the GOP also retaining control of both houses of Congress. But Democrats disputed that characterisation of the result, given that Republican majorities in both houses shrank, and that Mr Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by a margin of more than 1.1 million ballots.

Some Democrats have indicated a willingness to work with Mr Trump on elements of his agenda, including a prospective bill to fund major infrastructure spending, which could earn support from Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leaders in the House and Senate respectively.

The Post-Schar School poll surveyed 1,002 voters, including more than 400 who voted for Mr Trump and 400 who voted for Ms Clinton. More than half of those polled said they expected to see significant change in Washington under a Trump administration, that they thought living standards would increase, and that they were confident the economy would improve.