Trump’s 40% approval rating in the Associated Press/NORC Center for Public Affairs Research January survey is largely consistent with his numbers throughout the first year of his second term—and are similar to his ratings in his first term, when he entered the presidency with a 42% approval rating and left office with nearly the same number.
Americans’ views of Trump’s handling of immigration—one of his signature issues—have declined sharply throughout his first year in office, however, reaching 38% in January, down from 49% in March last year.
The poll overlapped with several high-profile shootings involving ICE officers, including the death of Renee Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, when an ICE agent shot multiple rounds through her car window at close range in an incident captured by bystanders’ video—prompting a heated partisan debate about whether she was aiming to hit the officer with her vehicle, with some on the right breaking with Trump and his allies in denouncing the shooting as an unjustified use of force.
Trump’s approval rating increased to 40% from 36% in December, while his disapproval rating decreased from 61% to 59% in the latest AP/NORC poll of 1,203 U.S. adults conducted Jan. 8-11 (margin of error 3.9).
Despite the improvement in Trump’s overall approval rating, the poll found a plurality of respondents (45%) want the U.S. to take a less active role in solving global issues, an increase from the 33% who said the same in December.
Trump’s approval rating was also at 40% in the latest Economist/YouGov poll released Wednesday and his disapproval rating was 56%, a slight improvement from last week (the poll of 1,437 registered voters was conducted Jan. 9-12 and has a margin of error of 3.1).
Trump’s 39% approval rating and 56% disapproval rating is unchanged from last week’s Economist/YouGov survey of 1,551 U.S. adults taken Jan. 2-5 (margin of error 3.3).
Trump’s approval rating dipped one point, to 46%, in the latest Morning Consult survey, consistent with his average job performance rating throughout his second term, according to the poll of 2,201 registered U.S. voters taken Jan. 2-4 (margin of error 2).
Trump’s approval rating ticked up three points, to 42%, and his disapproval rating decreased three points, to 56%, in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll of 1,248 U.S. adults taken Jan. 4-5, after the U.S. captured Maduro and his wife in a stunning raid early Saturday.
Views of Trump’s job performance improved to their highest point since October, despite only one in three Americans approving of the military operation and 72% saying they’re worried the U.S. will become too involved in Venezuela, according to the Reuters/Ipsos poll, which has a margin of error of 3).
Trump ends the year with a 39% approval rating and 56% disapproval rating in the Economist/YouGov’s weekly poll following a downward trend since the start of his second term linked to his handling of the economy—as more than half of poll respondents, 51%, said they believe the economy is getting worse (the latest survey of 1,550 U.S. adults was conducted Dec. 26-29 and has a 3.6-point margin of error).
Trump’s -17% net approval rating compares to a -14% net approval rating after the first year of his first term and a -10% net approval rating after Biden’s first year, according to Economist/YouGov polling.
Trump had a 41% approval rating and 50% disapproval rating in an Emerson College poll of 1,000 voters taken Dec. 14-15 (margin of error 3).
The numbers are nearly the same as they were in November, when Trump also had a 41% approval rating and a 49% disapproval rating, but are a sharp turn from his 49% approval/41% disapproval rating in the group’s January poll taken at the start of his term.
Trump’s overall job performance had a 38% approval rating in the latest NPR/PBS/Marist poll of 1,440 adults conducted Dec. 8-11 (margin of error 3.2), while 54% disapprove.
His 36% approval rating on his handling of the economy is at its lowest point for both his first and second terms.
Trump had a 40% approval rating and 54% disapproval rating in a Quinnipiac University poll taken Dec. 11-15 among 1,035 registered voters (margin of error 3.9), unchanged from Trump’s October approval/disapproval rating.
Trump’s approval rating decreased from 41% to 39% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll, compared to the groups’ poll the previous week week, while his disapproval rating also increased from 57% to 59% (the poll of 1,016 respondents was taken Dec. 12-15 and has a three-point margin of error).
Approval of Trump’s handling of the economy slipped from 36% to 33% while the share of respondents who said they disapprove increased from 52% to 58%.
Trump’s 36% approval rating was unchanged from AP-NORC’s November poll in its survey of 1,146 adults conducted Dec. 4-8 (margin of error 4), but his rating on the economy dipped to 31%, a low point for both terms.
Trump’s approval rating ticked up to 41% from 38% in late November in Reuters/Ipsos’ poll, while his disapproval rating decreased from 60% to 57% (the poll of 4,434 U.S. adults was conducted Dec. 3-8 and has a two-point margin of error).
The uptick coincided with an increase in his performance on the cost of living—from 26% last month to 31% this month among all respondents, driven by a 10-point gain among Republican voters.
Trump has sought to improve voters’ views on his handling of the economy, kicking off an “affordability tour” in Pennsylvania.
The New York Times’s polling average found Trump had a 42% approval rating and 55% disapproval rating after several weeks of declining support.
The data shows voters increasingly disapprove of his handling of the economy—net approval of his economic performance has fallen across surveys—with just 26% percent of respondents believing Trump is doing a good job at managing the cost of living, according to the Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Trump has also seen faltering numbers from within his own party and one-time supporters: Only 75% of Republicans approved of his handling of the economy in November, down from 82% in July, according to Marquette University polling, and his approval rating among white, college-educated men has dropped to 40% from 47% in June, according to polling from Fox News.
The Economist/YouGov’s weekly poll of 1,628 U.S. adults taken Nov. 28-Dec. 1 found Trump had a 38% approval rating and 57% disapproval rating, the seventh straight week his net approval rating was -15 or lower (the survey has a margin of error of 3.2).
In Trump’s first term, his net approval rating never dipped to or below -15 for more than three consecutive weeks, YouGov noted.
Biden had a -9 net approval rating at this point in his term and Trump had a -15 net approval rating at this point in his first term, according to Economist/YouGov polling.
41%. That’s Trump’s average approval rating so far during his second term, equal to his 41% average approval rating throughout the duration of his first term, according to Gallup.
Trump’s overall average approval rating for his first and second terms (41%) is lower than all presidents dating back to Harry Truman, according to Gallup. Joe Biden had the next lowest average, 42%, followed by Truman (45%) and Jimmy Carter (46%).
Trump is threatening military action against Iran as thousands of anti-regime protesters have been killed in demonstrations that broke out in December. Potential intervention in Iran comes after the U.S. military raided Maduro’s compound in Caracas on Jan. 3 in an unprecedented series of attacks that toppled his regime, marking what’s widely viewed as the most major action of Trump’s term. Americans’ persistent economic concerns have weighed heavily on his polling numbers. He launched an “affordability tour” in December designed to address cost-of-living concerns after Republican losses in November elections were widely viewed as a rebuke of Trump’s handling of the economy. Trump has experienced several notable breaks with his MAGA base in recent months: The House approved legislation requiring the Justice Department to release documents detailing its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. Trump endorsed the bill, despite initial resistance, as it became clear it had enough Republican support to pass. Other major moments of Trump’s second term include the federal government reopening Nov. 12 after a record-long 43-day shutdown as Democrats refused to back a Republican spending plan that didn’t include an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies. Trump also brokered a cease-fire deal in the Israel-Hamas war that was announced in September and required Hamas to release its remaining hostages who were being held in Gaza, marking what’s widely believed to be his most significant foreign policy achievement of his second term. In June, Congress approved his signature policy legislation that will enact some of his most significant campaign promises, including an extension of his 2017 tax cuts and tighter border control. Trump’s approval rating has declined since the start of his term, with a notable plunge coinciding with his wide-ranging “Liberation Day” tariffs he announced on April 2 against nearly all U.S. trading partners, though he has largely backed off most of the levies. His efforts to slash the federal workforce with the help of the then-Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency and his mass deportation push are two other controversial hallmarks of his administration that have prompted numerous legal actions and questions about the limitations of the executive branch’s authority.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2026/01/15/trumps-approval-rating-largely-unchanged-in-first-year-but-immigration-ratings-have-plummeted/
