CNN
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At the one-month mark of Donald Trump’s second term as president, his approval rating in a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS tilts negative but still lands above the level he reached at any point in his first four years in office.
There are signs in the poll, though, that the warmer welcome Trump has received this time around could be fleeting, as optimism about his return to office has slipped since December. A broad majority feel the president isn’t doing enough to address the high prices of everyday goods. And 52% say he’s gone too far in using his presidential power, with similar majorities wary of his push to shutter federal agencies and elevate Elon Musk to a prominent role in his efforts to reshape the government.
Americans divide on Trump’s performance in office thus far, with 47% approving and 52% disapproving, below the start-of-term ratings for any recent presidency other than his own. For most of the public, Trump’s actions are lining up with their expectations: Three-quarters say his handling of the presidency has been in line with what they expected while 25% say he’s handled it in an unexpected way, similar to how people felt a few weeks into his first term.
All told, 41% say both that Trump is handling the presidency as expected and that his living up to their expectations is a positive. Nearly all of those who feel caught off guard describe that as a bad thing, but the group who feels surprised in a bad way by Trump’s actions makes up only 21% of all Americans.
Most adults nationwide, 55%, say that Trump has not paid enough attention to the country’s most important problems and 62% feel he has not gone far enough in trying to reduce the price of everyday goods. Sizable shares across party lines share the latter view, including 47% of Republicans, 65% of independents and 73% of Democrats. In CNN’s January polling, the economy eclipsed all other issues as Americans’ top concern.
More describe themselves as pessimistic or afraid when looking ahead to the rest of Trump’s second term (54%) than say they feel enthusiastic or optimistic about it (46%). In December, 52% were on the positive side, 48% negative. Notably, the share saying they feel “afraid” has climbed 6 points to 35%, rising by a roughly equal share across partisan lines.
Trump’s support also appears to be fading among some traditionally Democratic-leaning demographic groups with whom he made inroads in last year’s election. A January CNN poll found that 57% of 18–34-year-olds, 50% of Hispanic adults and 30% of Black adults approved of the way he was handling the presidential transition. Now that Trump has taken office, his approval ratings with those groups stand at 41% among younger and Hispanic adults and 23% among Black adults.
Hispanic and Black adults are notably more likely than Whites to also say that Trump has handled the presidency in a way they did not expect (35% among Hispanic adults and 30% among Black adults compared with 20% among White adults), and to see that as a bad thing (29% among Hispanic people and 24% among Black people vs. 16% among White people).
About half of all Americans feel that Trump has overstepped in using the power of the presidency and the executive branch (52% say he has gone too far in doing so, 39% that he’s been about right and 8% that he hasn’t gone far enough). Broad majorities of Democrats (87%) and independents (57%) see him as going too far in using the presidency’s powers. Republicans largely disagree but few of Trump’s own partisans are clamoring for him to go further than he has already: 75% say his use of presidential power has been about right, 11% think he’s gone too far and 13% that he hasn’t gone far enough.
Sizable shares are skeptical about his efforts to trim government programs and shut down federal agencies. About half (48%) say he’s gone too far in changing the way the US government works, with 32% saying his approach has been about right and 19% that it hasn’t gone far enough. Larger shares say he’s gone too far in cutting federal government programs (51%), that it’s a bad thing that he has attempted to shut down entire agencies such as the US Agency for International Development and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (53%) and that it’s bad he gave Musk a prominent role in his administration (54%).
Trump’s suggestion that the US take over Gaza and keep Palestinians from returning there is the least popular of the early proposals he’s put forth that were tested in the poll. Overall, 58% call that a bad idea, including 86% of Democrats, 60% of independents and 27% of Republicans. A plurality of Republicans take a neutral position on it (47% call it neither good nor bad), and just 26% call it a good thing.
Some of the president’s early moves, though, draw more muted opposition. On deporting immigrants living in the US illegally, 39% say Trump’s approach has been about right with another 16% saying he hasn’t gone far enough, together outpacing the 45% who say Trump has gone too far on that score. And 42% call it a bad thing that Trump has sought to end diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the federal government, modestly outpacing the 37% saying it’s a good thing, with 20% neutral on the matter.
Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are broadly dissatisfied with the response to Trump by Democrats in Congress. Nearly three-quarters (73%) say the party’s caucus in Congress is doing too little to oppose Trump, with just 22% saying they’re doing the right amount and 5% that they’re overdoing it.
Republicans and Republican-aligned independents, meanwhile, largely see the congressional GOP as doing the right amount to back the president (64%), with another 24% saying they do too little to support him and 12% too much. Republican-aligned adults of color are somewhat more likely than White adults who are Republican-aligned to say the party is doing too much to support Trump (21% among Republicans/Republican-leaning independents of color vs. 8% among Republican-aligned Whites).
The sense of urgency Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents feel is evident in their views on the stakes of Trump’s time in office. In the new poll, 70% of Democratic-aligned adults said they view American democracy as under attack, up from 49% who felt that way in the fall of 2023, and 63% say they feel afraid as they look ahead to the rest of Trump’s term. Democratic-aligned adults who say democracy is under attack are far more likely than other Democratic-leaners to say their party’s response to Trump is inadequate (82% say so compared with 58% among those who feel democracy is under threat rather than attack).
That view from the left contrasts sharply with the view from the GOP. Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, just 23% see American democracy as under attack, down from 61% who said the same about a year and a half ago, and 87% describe themselves as either enthusiastic or optimistic about Trump’s coming time in office.
With many of the Trump administration’s early actions already facing legal challenges, the poll also finds few Americans have deep trust in the Supreme Court to make the right decisions on any legal cases relating to the Trump administration. Just 41% overall have at least a moderate amount of trust in the high court, peaking at 66% among Republicans. But few in any party express a great deal of trust in the Court to handle any cases on the subject: 19% of Republicans, 7% of independents and 6% of Democrats feel that way.
The CNN Poll was conducted by SSRS from February 13-17 among a random national sample of 1,206 adults drawn from a probability-based panel. Surveys were either conducted online or by telephone with a live interviewer. Results among the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
CNN’s Ariel Edwards-Levy and Edward Wu contributed to this report.
