Trump's approval rating steadily declining - NYT calculates average poll numbers
Kyiv • UNN
Trump's approval rating has fallen from 52% to 45% in the first three months. The drop is driven by declining support among independent voters and concerns about tariffs.
According to the average of polls collected by The New York Times, the approval rating of US President Donald Trump's work has steadily declined during his first three months in office, writes UNN.
Details
Trump's approval rating has fallen to about 45 percent from 52 percent a week after he took office. According to polls, about half of the country now disapproves of his activities, the publication writes.
American presidents usually take office with a wave of support that subsequently weakens. But Trump's approval is falling a little faster than that of his predecessors, the publication notes.
Trump began his term with the second lowest approval ratings for a US president in modern history. The only recent US president who started from the worst position was Trump when he first took office, the publication points out.
The average of polls collected by The New York Times includes almost all publicly published polls that track Trump's approval rating. The goal of the average of polls is to balance the bias of individual polls, which may differ in quality and frequency, and to simplify tracking changes in public opinion over time.
The average does not directly consider the reasons for the decline in approval or whether it is caused by specific actions, such as the introduction of duties, threats to allies, or fluctuations in the markets.
On average across all polls, Trump's ratings continued to fall after he introduced tariffs by his decree. Although few high-quality polls were conducted before and after the announcement of tariffs, most of them did not show a significant decline after what Trump called the "Day of Liberation" of the United States, the publication writes.
So far, as indicated, it is too early to fully assess how such an event shaped public opinion.
In his second term, Trump sought to change the global economy, strengthen the fight against immigration, reduce the federal government, and rebuild American law firms and universities. The blitz is part of the "flood zone" strategy developed by Trump's aides and allies to suppress any opposition, the publication writes.
Trump is fulfilling many of the promises he made as a candidate, but even some supporters have expressed concern about some of his actions, the publication indicates. In particular, the massive duty on dozens of countries is irritating allies and opponents. The trade war threw global economic markets into turmoil before Trump suspended tariffs for 90 days, citing negotiations with other countries on new trade agreements.
Polls show a slight decline in his support among Republican voters.
Most of the decline in approval came from voters who consider themselves independent, according to a Quinnipiac University poll. His position in this crucial electoral bloc in January was 41 percent approval and 46 percent disapproval. In this poll, conducted in mid-April, 58 percent of independent respondents said they did not approve of the US president's work, while only 36 percent approved of it.
Sociologists still cannot fully assess the strength of Trump's support. In 2024, pre-election polls underestimated Trump by an average of about 3 percentage points. But even polls that most accurately assessed his support, such as AtlasIntel, now show a net negative approval rating, the publication notes.
As the publication indicates, Trump sees his second term as a resounding success. He boasted of a significant reduction in illegal border crossings, billions of dollars in new investment in the United States, the release of Americans imprisoned abroad, and the eradication of diversity initiatives in the public and private sectors. Trump also promised that new trade agreements, including with China, are just around the corner. "We will make money together with everyone, and everyone will be happy," he told reporters near the White House on Wednesday.
