President Donald Trump’s approval rating among Black Americans is strikingly low, according to new polling.
Why It Matters
The 2024 election saw a notable shift toward Republicans among Black voters, with Trump securing 16 percent of the Black vote—the highest level of support for a GOP candidate among Black Americans since Jimmy Carter in 1977. In comparison, Trump won 56 percent of the white vote and 43 percent of the Hispanic vote. His support among Black voters marked a significant rise from 12 percent in 2020 and just 8 percent in 2016.
Trump also saw significant support from Black voters in the swing states. One exit poll from Wisconsin published by NBC showed Trump improved his vote share among Black voters by 13 percent since 2020, and in North Carolina and Georgia, he saw a 5-point increase. However, recent polling suggests the inroads that Trump made with Black Americans in the 2024 election may not have stuck.

John McDonnell/AP
What To Know
Recent polling suggests that Trump’s approval rating among Black Americans is lower than any other demographic.
According to the latest poll conducted by YouGov and The Economist, only 24 percent of Black respondents approve of Trump’s job performance, while 69 percent disapprove. That is compared to 55 percent of Hispanic voters who disapprove of Trump and 40 percent who approve.
Among white voters, 57 percent said they approve of Trump, while 38 percent said they disapprove. Trump’s base in 2024 was made up predominantly of white voters.
The poll surveyed 1,603 U.S. adults between February 16 and 18 and had a margin of error of +/- 3 percent.
Other polls showed a similar trend, including a poll conducted by McLaughlin and Associates between February 11 and 18 among 1,000 general election voters, which showed that just 29 percent of Black Americans approve of Trump, while 64 percent disapprove. Of Hispanic voters, 46 percent said they approve of the president’s job performance, while 47 percent disapprove, and 54 percent of White voters said they approve, compared to 44 percent who disapprove. The poll’s margin of error was not immediately available.
Additionally, a poll conducted by Emerson College among 1,000 registered voters between February 15-17, showed that 23 percent of Black Americans approve of Trump, and 63 percent disapprove. Trump’s approval rating among other racial groups was far higher in that poll, with 54 percent of white voters approving of him and 38 percent disapproving, and 44 percent of Asian Americans saying they approve of his job performance, while 52 percent said they disapprove.
Among Hispanic voters, 39 percent said they approve, while 43 percent disapprove. The poll had a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points.
But while some polls have shown disappointing results for Trump, others have painted a more positive picture of his appeal among Black voters.
A January 21-23 AtlasIntel poll found that 69 percent of Black voters approve of his job performance, compared to just 50 percent of white voters. The same poll revealed that 72 percent of Black voters view immigration as a key challenge for the U.S.—a central theme of Trump’s campaign. However, the YouGov/Economist poll showed that just 30 percent of Black voters approve of Trump’s handling of immigration, compared to 57 percent of white voters and 39 percent of Hispanic voters.
Meanwhile, polls have also indicated that Black voters are less than impressed with the Democratic Party at the moment.
A 2040 Strategy Group poll conducted among 979 Black Americans between February 5 to 7 revealed that only 18 percent of Black respondents strongly agreed that the Democrats’ current approach to countering Trump was effective.
Some 68 percent of respondents also said they strongly agree that defending Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs from Trump’s attacks should be a central focus for the Democrats moving forward, with two in three saying that the Democrats’ defense of DEI policies against Trump will be important in determining their future vote. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.6 percentage points.
On his first day in office, Trump ordered the removal of officials overseeing DEI efforts across federal agencies as well as the dismantling of federal diversity programs. A memo from the Office of Personnel Management, released in January, directed agency heads to place all DEI staff on paid administrative leave, and to plan for staff reductions by January 31.
The memo also mandated the removal of DEI materials and the withdrawal of documents that conflicted with the new directives. Earlier this month, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said on X that the Department of Education had recently terminated 70 DEI-related training grants, totaling $373 million.
Amid the attack on DEI by the White House, the Democrats are now facing the challenge of defending diversity initiatives while also avoiding letting these issues define their party as they attempt to win back voters lost to Trump.
“The party is flailing,” Rashad Robinson, who recently stepped aside after years of leading Color of Change, a progressive civil rights group, told the New York Times. Robinson said Democrats had to show how diversity programs were beneficial in a practical manner.
“If we make the case simply through a moral lens, we will lose,” he said. “Right now, we have to make the business case.”
What People Are Saying
Alvin Tillery, founder of Alliance for Black Equality and co-founder of 2040 Strategy Group, told Newsweek: “The findings of these polls are consistent with the findings of our 2040 Strategy Group poll released on February 7th that found Trump’s approval rating at 25 percent. I think all of these numbers are pretty accurate and show that Trump is actually having something of a honeymoon with Black voters because his actual vote share was no more than 20 percent on election night. Our polling also shows that the majority of Black voters see him as hostile to communities of color. The other polls’ findings about Latino voters suggest that the support he received from that community has already eroded. That’s where the real story is in these other polls. We know that whites are most supportive of Trump and that the Black and Asian communities were the most Democratic on Election Day. So, if there is any evidence of eroding support, it is with the Latino community.”
Christopher Towler, an associate professor of political science at California State University, Sacramento and part of the Black Voter Project, told Newsweek: “I believe that the findings in the YouGov/Economist poll and others are accurate, as Black approval toward Trump has traditionally been much lower than other groups, and not much has changed this election cycle. Much of the data suggesting Trump garnered additional support among Black voters this election cycle was due to poor data and unrepresentative Black samples, leading to horrible generalizations about shifting Black support. If anything, the post-election data reflects what we’ve known all along.”
What Happens Next
While recent trends indicate a growing support for Trump among certain Black demographics, especially younger Black men, it’s unclear whether this momentum will sustain or if discontent with Trump will prompt a reengagement with the Democrats.
Update 2/26/25, 7:05 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Christopher Towler.