Trump approval sinks as Americans criticize his major policies, poll finds
After high expectations before he returned to office, most Americans say the president has made the economy worse.
Washington Post
See original article for charts omitted here.
By Dan Balz, Scott Clement and Emily Guskin
As he nears the end of his first 100 days in office, President Donald Trump is facing growing opposition to his ambitious and controversial agenda, with his approval rating in decline, majority opposition to major initiatives, and perceptions that his administration is seeking to avoid complying with federal court orders, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll.
No president in modern times has moved more swiftly than Trump to remake so many parts of government, as well as some outside institutions. The moves range from shrinking and reshaping the executive branch to upending the global economic order to cracking down on illegal immigration to challenging leading universities.
The initiatives have caused significant disruption to individuals, institutions and financial markets. They have produced a flurry of lawsuits from opponents, which Trump is contesting. There are few bright spots in the survey for the president, and none of his policies tested in the poll enjoy majority support.
Trump’s overall approval rating is lower than it was only two months ago. The poll shows that 39 percent of adult Americans approve of the way Trump is handling his job, compared with 55 percent who disapprove, including 44 percent who disapprove strongly. In February, those numbers were 45 percent positive and 53 percent negative.
Among registered voters, the deterioration has been even larger. In February, 48 percent of registered voters gave him positive marks, compared with 51 percent negative. Today those numbers are 42 percent positive and 55 percent negative, a swing from net negative three percentage points to net negative 13 points.
Trump’s approval rating is lower than for any past president at the 100-day mark in their first or second terms. At a similar point in their first terms as president, 42 percent approved of Trump and 52 percent approved of President Joe Biden. Most presidents enjoy a honeymoon during their first months in office, only to see their ratings decline later in the first year. Trump may be an exception.
Trump has seen a decline of 10 points among White people without a college degree, a key part of his political coalition; he is also down 13 points among adults under age 30 and 11 points among those who say they did not vote in November.
For the most part, Trump is holding on to support from his Republican base, including many who say federal judges are trying to interfere with his legal authority. On one big policy, most Americans say they think Trump’s tariffs will create more manufacturing jobs in the United States, as he has predicted, even if they see the tariffs as raising prices.
The findings suggest that the president has overinterpreted the meaning of his victory over former vice president Kamala Harris by pursuing policies that have generated dissatisfaction from the public. In broad strokes, the judgment of his presidency so far is that a majority think Trump has exceeded his authority, a majority say the economy is worse and about half say that U.S. leadership in the world has become weaker. The economy, once a clear attribute for Trump, has become one more source of public disapproval about his presidency.
For all the negative findings related to the president’s actions, the poll offers little comfort for Democrats. Americans trust Trump over congressional Democrats by 37 percent to 30 percent when it comes to dealing with the country’s major problems — another 30 percent trust “neither” — and see the Democratic Party as somewhat more out of touch “with the concerns of most people” than either the president or the Republican Party.
There is a significant partisan split on rating the president — and on virtually everything else in the survey. More than 9 in 10 Democrats disapprove of the way Trump is doing his job while more than 8 in 10 Republicans approve. But 15 percent of Republicans give him negative marks, marginally more than did so eight years ago, when 10 percent of Republicans said they disapproved of his work at the 100-day mark. Last November, Trump captured 94 percent of Republicans’ votes, according to exit polls.
In the survey, independents, a group Trump narrowly lost in November, break heavily to the negative, with 33 percent approving and 58 percent disapproving. Among independents who lean Republican, Trump’s approval has dropped from 76 percent to 63 percent since February.
On specific issues, more than 6 in 10 disapprove of his handling of the economy, U.S. relations with other countries, applying tariffs to imported goods and his navigation of the recent turmoil in financial markets. Smaller majorities disapprove of his management of the federal government and the way he is looking out for average Americans. Even on immigration, the president’s signature issue, 53 percent disapprove of the way he is handling things, though there are elements of his policies that do enjoy support.
Most Americans say the president is “going too far” trying to expand the power of the presidency, in laying off government employees to cut the size of the federal workforce, in closing federal agencies, and by taking measures against political opponents. A bare majority (51 percent) say he has gone too far in trying to end efforts to increase diversity in the government and private workplaces, while 48 percent say he has gone too far with his policies to deport undocumented immigrants. Half say Trump is handling these deportations about right or “not going far enough.”
More than 3 in 4 oppose reductions in federal funding for medical research; 7 in 10 oppose the administration’s efforts to increase the government’s role in the operation of private universities; 2 in 3 oppose his effort to end birthright citizenship, an issue the Supreme Court will hear soon; and more than 6 in 10 oppose shutting down the Education Department, cutting back on environmental regulations on oil and gas drilling, and freezing foreign aid that provides food and health services to people in poor countries.
About 6 in 10 oppose deporting international students who have criticized U.S. policy in the Middle East, while Americans are roughly split over sending undocumented immigrants suspected of being gang members to an El Salvador prison without a court hearing, with 51 percent opposed and 47 percent in support.
One of the biggest clashes has been between the administration and Harvard University. The administration has sought to impose orders on the operations of Harvard, and the university has in turn sued, claiming a violation of its constitutional rights. About 2 in 3 Americans say they take Harvard’s side of this confrontation.
Trump won the election last year largely on the issues of immigration and the economy. On the economy, many viewed him as a better steward than either Biden or Harris, and his economic ratings were generally positive during his first term in office. That is not the case today.
Today, his economic approval rating is 39 percent positive and 61 percent negative. That compares with 45 percent positive and 53 percent negative only two months ago, before he announced the bulk of his tariffs on nations around the world. His disapproval is the highest recorded for Trump in a Post-ABC poll and his approval is the lowest recorded. Notably, his approval on the economy is only two points better than Biden’s 37 percent roughly a year ago.
Overall, more than 7 in 10 Americans say the economy today is either “not so good” or “poor,” identical to findings in February. Despite the absence of change in the general assessment of the economy, a majority (53 percent) say the economy has grown worse since Trump took office in January.
In December, 62 percent of swing-state voters predicted Trump would do an excellent or good job handling the economy, his best issue in that Post-Schar School poll. Almost half expected his presidency to help their personal finances (46 percent), while 31 percent expected their finances to suffer. In the new poll, about half say their financial situation is about the same as it was when Trump took office in January, while roughly 4 in 10 say they are worse off and 1 in 10 say they are better off.
Looking ahead, more than 7 in 10 say they think Trump’s policies will result in an economic recession in the short term, including 51 percent of Republicans. Looking further into the future, barely 3 in 10 think Trump’s policies will put the U.S. on a stronger economic foundation.
Americans see a president who is seeking to expand his authority and flouting the rule of law. A near majority (49 percent) say he is moving the country away from its founding principles, compared with about one-third who say he is moving the country closer to those principles.
More than 6 in 10 say the Trump administration does not respect the rule of law, and more than half say the administration is not committed to protecting the rights and freedoms of Americans. Six in 10 say the president, since taking office, has gone beyond his authority, and 56 percent say those actions are not justified.
Trump and administration lawyers have clashed with federal judges repeatedly in recent weeks, and in this area the public sides with the judges rather than the administration. Two in 3 say judges should have the authority to block a policy until a trial is held if they think the policy will harm people and is illegal.
More than 6 in 10 say they think federal judges are trying to enforce existing limits on Trump’s authority, compared with slightly more than 1 in 3 who say these judges are trying to interfere with the president’s authority. And about two-thirds say they think the administration is trying to avoid complying with court orders.
Large majorities of Democrats and independents side with the courts and judges, but Republicans side with the president on these questions. A narrow majority of Republicans (53 percent) say a federal judge should not have the authority to block administration policy. More than 6 in 10 Republicans say they think the administration is trying to comply with court orders, and 2 in 3 say federal judges are trying to interfere with the president’s authority to act.
The Post-ABC-Ipsos poll was conducted online April 18-22 among 2,464 U.S. adults. The sample was drawn through the Ipsos KnowledgePanel, an ongoing panel of U.S. households recruited by mail using random sampling methods. Overall results have a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points.
