US President Donald Trump’s public approval rating has fallen to a record low since the start of his second term in January, an Ipsos poll commissioned by Reuters showed on 16-21 April.
Trump’s performance as president was approved by 42 per cent of respondents. In a previous poll conducted three weeks earlier, 43% approved of Trump’s performance and 47% approved immediately after his inauguration on 20 January. As Reuters notes, Trump’s approval rating is still higher than that of his predecessor, Joe Biden, from 2023-2024. Biden’s lowest approval rating was recorded in October 2024 at 35%.
About 75% of respondents said Trump should not run for a third presidential term. A majority of Republican respondents (53%) believe Trump should not seek a third term.
A majority of respondents (83%) said the U.S. president should obey federal court decisions even if he doesn’t want to. 57% of respondents, including a third of Republicans, disagreed with the statement that it is normal for the president of the United States to cut off funding to universities if the president disagrees with how the university is run. 66% said the president should not control leading cultural institutions such as the nation’s museums and theatres.
On many issues – from inflation and immigration to taxation and the rule of law – the number of Americans who disapprove of Trump’s performance was higher than those who approve. On immigration, for example, the issue with the most support, 45% of respondents approved of Trump’s performance, while 46% disapproved. About 59% of respondents, including a third of Republicans, said that the United States is losing credibility in the world.
