Three new national polls released on Wednesday indicate President Donald Trump’s approval ratings are edging down slightly since taking over the White House one month ago.
Forty-five percent of voters questioned in a Quinnipiac University survey said they approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president, with 49% disapproving.
That’s down from a 46%-43% approval/disapproval in a Quinnipiac poll conducted in late January, during the president’s first week back in office following his inauguration.
And a new national poll from Gallup indicated the president at 45% approval and 51% disapproval, down from 47%-48% approval/disapproval late last month.
And according to a Reuters/Ipsos national survey also released on Wednesday, the president stood at 44% approval and 51% disapproval. Trump registered at 45%-46% approval/disapproval in the previous poll by Reuters/Ipsos, which was conducted late last month during the first week of the president’s second administration.
The latest Quinnipiac poll was conducted Feb. 13-17, with Gallup in the field Feb. 3-16, and Reuters/Ipsos conducting their survey Feb. 13-18.
Recent surveys from other polling organizations indicate Trump’s approval ratings remain above water.
Trump has kept up a frenetic pace during his opening weeks back in the White House, with an avalanche of executive orders and actions. His moves not only fulfilled some of his major campaign trail promises, but also allowed the returning president to flex his executive muscles, quickly put his stamp on the federal government, take a meat cleaver to the federal workforce, and also settle some longstanding grievances.
Trump has signed nearly 70 executive orders since his inauguration, according to a count from Fox News, which far surpasses the rate of any recent presidential predecessors during their first weeks in office.
The president, never shy about advertising his accomplishments, took to social media last week to tout ‘THREE GREAT WEEKS, PERHAPS THE BEST EVER.’
And at a news conference Tuesday, Trump argued that ‘incredible things are happening in our country.’
‘I think we’ve made more progress in three weeks than they’ve made in four years,’ he added, as he appeared to point to his predecessor in the White House, former President Biden.
While Trump’s approval ratings for his second term are an improvement from his first term — he started in 2017 in negative territory and remained underwater throughout his tenure in the White House — his numbers are below where Biden began his single term in office.
Biden’s approval rating hovered in the low to mid 50s during his first six months in the White House, with his disapproval in the upper 30s to low to mid 40s.
However, Biden’s numbers sank into negative territory in the late summer and autumn of 2021, in the wake of his much-criticized handling of the turbulent U.S. exit from Afghanistan and amid soaring inflation and a surge of migrants crossing into the U.S. along the nation’s southern border with Mexico.
Biden’s approval ratings stayed underwater throughout the rest of his presidency.
The new polls indicate a massive partisan divide over Trump’s performance.
Nine in 10 Republicans questioned in the Quinnipiac survey gave Trump a thumbs-up. But his approval dropped to 43% among independents and just 4% among Democrats.
It was a similar story in the Gallup poll.
‘Ninety-three percent of Republicans, 37% of independents and 4% of Democrats approve of Trump’s job performance overall,’ the release from Gallup highlighted.
Meanwhile, the Gallup poll noted that while Trump’s ratings have edged down, Americans’ approval of Congress has surged 12 points since early January, to 29% in their latest survey. That’s the highest approval rating for Congress in Gallup polling since May 2021.