President Trump's approval ratings are showing signs of weakening nearly two months into his second term.
While his efforts to crack down on immigration seem largely well-received, Trump’s performance on the economy has taken a hit amid whipsawing tariff plans followed by stock market losses. Though it was one of his biggest strengths throughout the 2024 campaign, the public’s view of Trump’s handling of the economy has started to drag on his overall approval rating.
Analysts said it’s not a given that Trump’s approval will fully drop underwater, but recent historical trends indicate a frustration that sets in with sitting presidents after a grace period.
“This would have been for [former Vice President] Harris, as well,” said Scott Tranter, the director of data science for Decision Desk HQ. “Ever since 2016, the phenomenon is, it’s not a Democrat or Republican thing. [People] just don’t like the person in power.”
Here’s what voters think of Trump’s job performance on major issues:
Overall job approval
Trump started his second administration with some of his highest approval ratings of either term, at times receiving majority support, almost completely unseen throughout his first term.
A CBS News poll taken just a few weeks into the second term put his approval rating at 53 percent, while a Harvard CAPS/Harris survey found it to be 52 percent at the one-month mark.
But polls with his disapproval rating higher than his approval rating have started to become a bit more common. Trump’s approval rating fell lower than his disapproval rating for the first time in his second term in RealClearPolitics’s average on Wednesday.
The first Gallup poll of Trump’s second term put his net job approval at -1 point, but the second one a few weeks later found it to be -6 points.
Still, his approval is notably better than where he was at this point in his first term, when he was underwater by more than 5 points on average.
Tranter said one major difference is Trump’s popular vote victory in 2024, unlike in 2016.
“That has reverberations into the overall approval rating,” he said. “Still obviously a controversial figure, but he has expanded the people who are going to pretty much like him no matter what.”
But Trump’s approval rating is still lower than most of his predecessors, both upon being sworn in and at this point in his term. Dating back to Harry Truman’s administration, every other president started their term with a majority of the country approving of their performance in Gallup polling.
The closest to Trump’s starting point were Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, with 51 percent.
The Hill political editor Chris Stirewalt’s weekly average shows Trump standing at 45.6 percent approval and 49.8 percent disapproval, based on an average of several major polls. His net approval is –4.2 points, which is 1.2 points lower than last week.
Economy
Polls along the campaign trail last year showed Americans largely bought into Trump’s promises to fix the economy, with many trusting him to handle the issues better than Harris.
But shortly into his second term in office, the polls signal frustration over steep losses in the stock market and a potential trade war with some of America's closest allies.
“You're looking at the first real indicator of negativity in terms of the Wall Street move, primarily coming from a demographic that's a Trump-based demographic, which are men with money, and there's been a lot of anxiety and selling pressure in the stock market over the last week,” said David Paleologos, the director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center.
An Emerson College Polling survey released this week found nearly half, or 48 percent, of voters disapproved of Trump’s job performance on the economy. A new CNN poll found that disapproval figure even higher, at 56 percent.
Half of respondents in the CNN poll also said Trump’s policies have worsened the country’s economic conditions.
And polling from the Economist/YouGov found Trump’s approval on jobs and the economy ticked down from 49 percent to 43 percent between late January and early March, while his approval on inflation dropped from 45 percent to 38 percent.
The latest numbers are a blight for Trump as the White House continues to pledge “to turn back the economic plague unleashed by the Biden Administration.” Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are worried that Trump’s tariff plans are hurting the economy, and voicing concern about downturns in the stock market.
Immigration
Since returning to the Oval, Trump has kicked off mass deportations and worked to end birthright citizenship as part of a major crackdown on immigration.
Like the economy, immigration was a top issue for Trump supporters during the 2024 race, as he railed against the Biden administration’s border actions.
In a Pew Research survey taken shortly after Trump’s inauguration, 59 percent of U.S. adults said they approved of the administration ramping up deportations, and 58 percent approved of sending additional military to the southern border.
CNN found 51 percent approved of his handling of immigration, his highest positive rating among a range of issue areas tested. Emerson found Trump performed best on immigration, at 48 percent approval.
Gallup polling from February also found that Trump’s approval on immigration, at 46 percent, was higher than his overall job approval, at 45 percent. Though his support from Democrats on immigration was in the single digits, he scored a notable 40 percent approval from independents, the highest of a half-dozen issues tested.
Ukraine war
Previous widespread bipartisan support for continued U.S. aid to Ukraine has given way to division on the best path forward. But an increasing number of voters say they want the war to end through negotiations, a position Trump has vocally supported.
But as the war lingers, that hasn’t translated into support for his handling of the conflict.
A Quinnipiac poll found 55 percent disapprove of how Trump is handling the war, while just 38 percent approve.
Trump, who has repeatedly claimed that Russia’s war on Ukraine would not have happened on his watch, controversially paused U.S. military and intelligence assistance to Kyiv and clashed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a meeting at the White House.
Nearly 6 in 10 voters in new Quinnipiac polling disapproved of the way Trump handled that meeting, and more than 6 in 10 said that supporting Ukraine is in the national interest. Roughly half thought Trump is too tough on Ukraine, and just 2 percent said he’s too tough on Russia.
An Economist/YouGov poll also found that while 46 percent of U.S. adults thought Zelensky wasn’t disrespectful at that meeting, as Vice President Vance had suggested, 51 percent said Trump was the one who showed disrespect.
Tranter said voters may give Trump a “longer leash” to end the war because it’s not as critical as reducing costs, but they want to see it done.
“He said it on his campaign, I'm going to solve it. So… all this back and forth, all these talks, not solving it, that's a pretty black and white thing.”
Tariffs
After months of threats, Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs this month against Canada and Mexico, marking a turning point in the relationship between the U.S. and two of its top trading partners. Days later, he added exemptions for most imports from those countries, delaying tariff implementation until early April.
Trump's plans have been met with sharp pushback from world leaders and the looming threats are having economic impacts in the U.S. and beyond.
More than half of voters in the Quinnipiac survey, or 55 percent, think Trump is being too tough on Canada.
“Icy exchanges on tariffs chill a longstanding friendship and voters make it clear they feel that's no way to treat our neighbors to the north,” said Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy in a release.
The CNN polling found Trump with just a 39 percent approval rating on tariffs.
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
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