Bibhu Pattnaik
Sun, August 24, 2025
BENZINGA
Seven months into his second term, President Donald Trump‘s approval ratings are underwater, according to a new poll.
What Happened: A poll conducted by The Economist/YouGov shows a growing disapproval of Trump’s presidency among Americans.
The survey revealed that 40% of respondents approved of Trump’s handling of the presidency, while 56% expressed disapproval. The poll also highlighted a partisan divide, with most Democrats disapproving of Trump and most Republicans approving.
Trump’s highest approval rating came from those aged 65 and older, with 48% expressing approval. On the other hand, the lowest approval rate was among those aged 18 to 29, with 29% expressing approval.
The poll found that 23% of Americans “strongly approve” of Trump’s work as president, while 47% “strongly disapprove.”
An earlier Reuters/Ipsos poll this month showed a seven-point drop in approval for Trump’s handling of the presidency, with his approval at 40% as in the new The Economist/YouGov survey.
Meanwhile, a Pew Research Center poll released in mid-August put Trump’s current job approval rating at 38%.
Why It Matters: The decline in approval ratings is a significant development in Trump’s second term. The growing disapproval among Americans and the partisan divide highlighted in the survey could have implications for the administration’s policy-making and political strategy.
The stark difference in approval ratings among different age groups also points to a potential generational divide in political opinion.
New poll shows more Americans 'strongly disapprove' of Trump's second term: What to know
Kathryn Palmer, USA TODAY
Sun, August 24, 2025
Twice as many Americans say they strongly disapprove of President Donald Trump's second term than those who strongly approve, according to a new poll.
In a survey from YouGov and The Economist, conducted Aug. 15-18, two-thirds of respondents said they have strong feelings about Trump — and, increasingly, most of them are negative. The poll found 47% said they strongly disapprove of the second-term president, compared to 23% who say they strongly approve.
More: Amid Putin, Zelenskyy talks, several Trump approval polls dropped. Here's what they say.
About 70% of Americans say they either "strongly approve" or "strongly disapprove" of Trump's job performance, while 27% say they have a more muted opinion of the president. That includes people who either "somewhat approve" or "somewhat disapprove."
When broken down along party lines, most Democrats say they disapprove of Trump, and most Republicans approve of him, matching what has been a consistent theme among polling since the Republican took office a second time in January.
The YouGov/Economist poll found Democrats' sentiment toward the president is even stronger than Republicans', with 83% of Democrats saying they strongly disapprove of him. Among his Republican supporters, a little over half describe their approval in similarly passionate terms, with 54% saying they strongly approve of his performance.
That's a shift from earlier in Trump's second term, according to an Aug. 22 YouGov analysis of the data.
In January ,a majority still said they had a strong opinion about Trump, with 69% either strongly approving or disapproving. But unlike the most recent poll, 36% of Americans strongly disapproved of Trump at the time, and 34% strongly approved.
That's an 11-point increase in respondents who strongly disapprove of the president from the beginning of his term to recent weeks. Similarly, the August survey shows a nine-point drop since January among those who say they strongly approve of him.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media on board Air Force One en route from Scotland, Britain, to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., July 29, 2025.
The poll surveyed 1,568 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of ±3.5 percentage points. Overall approval ratings put the president at a 40% approval and 56% disapproval mark.
Aggregations of recent approval polling from The New York Times and RealClearPolitics place Trump's approval between 44% and 45%, respectively, with disapproval rates of 53% and 50%, as of Aug. 24.
A historical analysis and average by Gallup shows Trump's approval ratings in the first July of both of his terms are lower than those of any other modern president. In comparison, former President Joe Biden had a 50% average approval rating in July 2021, while former President Barack Obama's first and second-term July approval ratings were 57% and 46%, respectively. Gallup's analysis puts Trump's second-term average to date at 42%.
Kathryn Palmer is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kapalmer@usatoday.com and on X @KathrynPlmr.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Poll measures how much people strongly approve or disapprove of Trump
Most California voters disapprove of Trump's immigration enforcement policies, poll shows
Andrea Castillo
Sun, August 24, 2025
The U.S. Border Patrol produced a show of force outside the Japanese American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles on Aug. 14 and made one arrest. (Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Most California voters strongly disapprove of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies and believe that raids in the state have unfairly targeted Latinos, according to a new poll.
The findings, released Sunday, reflected striking emotional reactions to immigration enforcement. When voters were asked to describe their feelings about news reports or videos of immigration raids, 64% chose rage or sadness "because what is happening is unfair."
Among Democrats, 91% felt enraged or sad. Conversely, 65% of Republicans felt hopeful, "like justice is finally being served."
Such divisions were consistent across 11 questions about the administration's overall immigration strategy and specific aspects of the way enforcement is playing out in the state, with divisions along partisan lines. The UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll was conducted for the Los Angeles Times.
Read more: Love it or hate it? Poll shows how Californians feel about Newsom's redistricting fight with Trump
Democrats almost unanimously oppose President Trump’s tactics on immigration, the poll showed. Most Republicans support the president, though they are not as united as Democrats in their approval.
"It was essential to show the strength of feelings because Democrats are strongly on the negative side of each of these policies," said Mark DiCamillo, director of the Berkeley IGS Poll. "That struck me. I don't usually see that kind of extreme fervor on a poll response."
The poll found that 69% of respondents disapprove of the way immigration enforcement is being carried out in the state.
Among Democrats, 95% disapprove, as well as 72% of voters with no party preference or others not affiliated with the two major parties, whereas 79% of Republicans approve.
The poll was completed online in English and Spanish from Aug. 11-17 by 4,950 registered voters in California.
A question that showed the least unified support among Republican voters asked respondents whether they agree or disagree that federal agents should be required to show clear identification when carrying out their work. The question comes as immigration agents have carried out raids using face coverings, unmarked cars and while wearing casual clothing.
Some 50% of Republicans agreed that agents should have to identify themselves, while 92% of Democrats agreed.
G. Cristina Mora, IGS co-director and a sociology professor at UC Berkeley who studies race and immigration, helped develop the poll questions. She said the poll shows that Republican voters are much more nuanced than Democrats. They also split on questions about due process, birthright citizenship and immigration enforcement in sensitive locations.
"Republicans are much more fractured in their thinking about immigration across the state," Mora said.
Mora said she developed the question about agent identification in response to the recent bill led by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) that would require immigration officers to display their agency and name or badge number during public-facing enforcement actions, similar to police and other local law enforcement.
Padilla also spearheaded a letter last month to Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons seeking information about the agency's policies regarding the identification of agents while on duty. ICE has justified the tactics by stating that agents are at risk of doxxing and have faced increased assault on the job.
"The public has a right to know which officials are exercising police power, and anonymous enforcement undermines both constitutional norms and democratic oversight," Padilla and 13 other Democrats wrote in the letter.
Another poll question that garnered mixed support of Republicans asked respondents to agree or disagree with the statement, “ICE agents should expand immigration enforcement into schools, hospitals, parks and other public locations.”
Among Republicans, 53% agreed with that statement, though fewer than 1 in 3 agree strongly. Meanwhile, 94% of Democrats disagreed.
Shortly after Trump took office, his administration rescinded a 2011 memo that restricted immigration agents from making arrests in sensitive locations, such as churches, schools and hospitals. Since then, agents have been filmed entering locations that were previously considered off limits, putting immigrant communities on edge.
Schools in Los Angeles reopened this month with "safe zones" in heavily Latino neighborhoods and changed bus routes with less exposure to immigration agents. An 18-year-old high school senior, Benjamin Marcelo Guerrero-Cruz, was walking his family’s dog in Van Nuys when he was taken into federal immigration custody.
Mora said the varied responses illustrate how California Republicans view the Trump administration's immigration tactics with "degrees of acceptability." They might feel strongly that immigrants with violent criminal histories should be deported, she said, but the takeover of MacArthur Park, when a convoy of immigration agents in armored vehicles descended there in a show of force, or the enforcement actions outside of public schools "might have been a step too far."
Mike Madrid, a GOP political consultant who wrote a book about how Latinos have transformed democracy, said the split among Republicans is consistent with national polling. The trend is problematic for Trump, he said, because it means he is losing big swaths of his base.
"This is becoming viewed as overreach more than it is immigration control," he said. "The idea sets a frame for it, but the actual implementation is widely unpopular."
Republicans were largely united in response to other questions. Asked about the Trump administration's proposal to do away with birthright citizenship — which confers citizenship to all children born in the U.S. regardless of their parent's legal status — 67% of GOP respondents approved, and most of them strongly approved. By contrast, 92% of Democrats disapproved, and as did seven in 10 respondents overall.
Mora said she was surprised by the fact that Latinos didn't stand out as substantially more opposed to Trump's actions than voters of other racial and ethnic groups. For example, 69% of Latino voters said ICE raids have unfairly targeted Latinos, just five percentage points higher than the 64% of white non-Latino voters who agreed.
"You would imagine Latinos would be through the roof here, but they're not," Mora said. She said this reminded her of research around the tendency for Latinos to individualize their experiences instead of seeing them as racially unjust.
Broadly, 72% of Latinos disagree with the way the Trump administration is enforcing immigration laws in California, while 25% approve and 3% have no strong opinion.
Among Latino voter subgroups, older men and third-generation (or beyond) women are the more likely to support the way immigration enforcement is being handled in California, with 38% of Latino men over age 40 in agreement compared to 11% of Latinas ages 18-39, although among both groups majorities disapprove.
Madrid said that's consistent with national polling showing a decrease in support for Republicans among Latinos after record gains in the last presidential election. The question, he said, is whether Trump's approval ratings among Latinos could regress substantially enough to flip control of Congress in the midterms.
"We're not there yet," he said.
L.A. Times
Kathryn Palmer, USA TODAY
Sun, August 24, 2025
Twice as many Americans say they strongly disapprove of President Donald Trump's second term than those who strongly approve, according to a new poll.
In a survey from YouGov and The Economist, conducted Aug. 15-18, two-thirds of respondents said they have strong feelings about Trump — and, increasingly, most of them are negative. The poll found 47% said they strongly disapprove of the second-term president, compared to 23% who say they strongly approve.
More: Amid Putin, Zelenskyy talks, several Trump approval polls dropped. Here's what they say.
About 70% of Americans say they either "strongly approve" or "strongly disapprove" of Trump's job performance, while 27% say they have a more muted opinion of the president. That includes people who either "somewhat approve" or "somewhat disapprove."
When broken down along party lines, most Democrats say they disapprove of Trump, and most Republicans approve of him, matching what has been a consistent theme among polling since the Republican took office a second time in January.
The YouGov/Economist poll found Democrats' sentiment toward the president is even stronger than Republicans', with 83% of Democrats saying they strongly disapprove of him. Among his Republican supporters, a little over half describe their approval in similarly passionate terms, with 54% saying they strongly approve of his performance.
That's a shift from earlier in Trump's second term, according to an Aug. 22 YouGov analysis of the data.
In January ,a majority still said they had a strong opinion about Trump, with 69% either strongly approving or disapproving. But unlike the most recent poll, 36% of Americans strongly disapproved of Trump at the time, and 34% strongly approved.
That's an 11-point increase in respondents who strongly disapprove of the president from the beginning of his term to recent weeks. Similarly, the August survey shows a nine-point drop since January among those who say they strongly approve of him.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media on board Air Force One en route from Scotland, Britain, to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., July 29, 2025.
The poll surveyed 1,568 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of ±3.5 percentage points. Overall approval ratings put the president at a 40% approval and 56% disapproval mark.
Aggregations of recent approval polling from The New York Times and RealClearPolitics place Trump's approval between 44% and 45%, respectively, with disapproval rates of 53% and 50%, as of Aug. 24.
A historical analysis and average by Gallup shows Trump's approval ratings in the first July of both of his terms are lower than those of any other modern president. In comparison, former President Joe Biden had a 50% average approval rating in July 2021, while former President Barack Obama's first and second-term July approval ratings were 57% and 46%, respectively. Gallup's analysis puts Trump's second-term average to date at 42%.
Kathryn Palmer is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kapalmer@usatoday.com and on X @KathrynPlmr.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Poll measures how much people strongly approve or disapprove of Trump
Most California voters disapprove of Trump's immigration enforcement policies, poll shows
Andrea Castillo
Sun, August 24, 2025
The U.S. Border Patrol produced a show of force outside the Japanese American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles on Aug. 14 and made one arrest. (Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Most California voters strongly disapprove of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies and believe that raids in the state have unfairly targeted Latinos, according to a new poll.
The findings, released Sunday, reflected striking emotional reactions to immigration enforcement. When voters were asked to describe their feelings about news reports or videos of immigration raids, 64% chose rage or sadness "because what is happening is unfair."
Among Democrats, 91% felt enraged or sad. Conversely, 65% of Republicans felt hopeful, "like justice is finally being served."
Such divisions were consistent across 11 questions about the administration's overall immigration strategy and specific aspects of the way enforcement is playing out in the state, with divisions along partisan lines. The UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll was conducted for the Los Angeles Times.
Read more: Love it or hate it? Poll shows how Californians feel about Newsom's redistricting fight with Trump
Democrats almost unanimously oppose President Trump’s tactics on immigration, the poll showed. Most Republicans support the president, though they are not as united as Democrats in their approval.
"It was essential to show the strength of feelings because Democrats are strongly on the negative side of each of these policies," said Mark DiCamillo, director of the Berkeley IGS Poll. "That struck me. I don't usually see that kind of extreme fervor on a poll response."
The poll found that 69% of respondents disapprove of the way immigration enforcement is being carried out in the state.
Among Democrats, 95% disapprove, as well as 72% of voters with no party preference or others not affiliated with the two major parties, whereas 79% of Republicans approve.
The poll was completed online in English and Spanish from Aug. 11-17 by 4,950 registered voters in California.
A question that showed the least unified support among Republican voters asked respondents whether they agree or disagree that federal agents should be required to show clear identification when carrying out their work. The question comes as immigration agents have carried out raids using face coverings, unmarked cars and while wearing casual clothing.
Some 50% of Republicans agreed that agents should have to identify themselves, while 92% of Democrats agreed.
G. Cristina Mora, IGS co-director and a sociology professor at UC Berkeley who studies race and immigration, helped develop the poll questions. She said the poll shows that Republican voters are much more nuanced than Democrats. They also split on questions about due process, birthright citizenship and immigration enforcement in sensitive locations.
"Republicans are much more fractured in their thinking about immigration across the state," Mora said.
Mora said she developed the question about agent identification in response to the recent bill led by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) that would require immigration officers to display their agency and name or badge number during public-facing enforcement actions, similar to police and other local law enforcement.
Padilla also spearheaded a letter last month to Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons seeking information about the agency's policies regarding the identification of agents while on duty. ICE has justified the tactics by stating that agents are at risk of doxxing and have faced increased assault on the job.
"The public has a right to know which officials are exercising police power, and anonymous enforcement undermines both constitutional norms and democratic oversight," Padilla and 13 other Democrats wrote in the letter.
Another poll question that garnered mixed support of Republicans asked respondents to agree or disagree with the statement, “ICE agents should expand immigration enforcement into schools, hospitals, parks and other public locations.”
Among Republicans, 53% agreed with that statement, though fewer than 1 in 3 agree strongly. Meanwhile, 94% of Democrats disagreed.
Shortly after Trump took office, his administration rescinded a 2011 memo that restricted immigration agents from making arrests in sensitive locations, such as churches, schools and hospitals. Since then, agents have been filmed entering locations that were previously considered off limits, putting immigrant communities on edge.
Schools in Los Angeles reopened this month with "safe zones" in heavily Latino neighborhoods and changed bus routes with less exposure to immigration agents. An 18-year-old high school senior, Benjamin Marcelo Guerrero-Cruz, was walking his family’s dog in Van Nuys when he was taken into federal immigration custody.
Mora said the varied responses illustrate how California Republicans view the Trump administration's immigration tactics with "degrees of acceptability." They might feel strongly that immigrants with violent criminal histories should be deported, she said, but the takeover of MacArthur Park, when a convoy of immigration agents in armored vehicles descended there in a show of force, or the enforcement actions outside of public schools "might have been a step too far."
Mike Madrid, a GOP political consultant who wrote a book about how Latinos have transformed democracy, said the split among Republicans is consistent with national polling. The trend is problematic for Trump, he said, because it means he is losing big swaths of his base.
"This is becoming viewed as overreach more than it is immigration control," he said. "The idea sets a frame for it, but the actual implementation is widely unpopular."
Republicans were largely united in response to other questions. Asked about the Trump administration's proposal to do away with birthright citizenship — which confers citizenship to all children born in the U.S. regardless of their parent's legal status — 67% of GOP respondents approved, and most of them strongly approved. By contrast, 92% of Democrats disapproved, and as did seven in 10 respondents overall.
Mora said she was surprised by the fact that Latinos didn't stand out as substantially more opposed to Trump's actions than voters of other racial and ethnic groups. For example, 69% of Latino voters said ICE raids have unfairly targeted Latinos, just five percentage points higher than the 64% of white non-Latino voters who agreed.
"You would imagine Latinos would be through the roof here, but they're not," Mora said. She said this reminded her of research around the tendency for Latinos to individualize their experiences instead of seeing them as racially unjust.
Broadly, 72% of Latinos disagree with the way the Trump administration is enforcing immigration laws in California, while 25% approve and 3% have no strong opinion.
Among Latino voter subgroups, older men and third-generation (or beyond) women are the more likely to support the way immigration enforcement is being handled in California, with 38% of Latino men over age 40 in agreement compared to 11% of Latinas ages 18-39, although among both groups majorities disapprove.
Madrid said that's consistent with national polling showing a decrease in support for Republicans among Latinos after record gains in the last presidential election. The question, he said, is whether Trump's approval ratings among Latinos could regress substantially enough to flip control of Congress in the midterms.
"We're not there yet," he said.
L.A. Times
No comments:
Post a Comment