WASHINGTON — Many Americans do not agree with President Trump’s aggressive efforts to quickly enact his agenda, a new poll finds, and even Republicans are not overwhelmingly convinced that his attention has been in the right place.
Americans are nearly twice as likely to say Trump mostly focused on the wrong priorities as they are to say he focused on the right ones, according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
About 4 in 10 Americans say Trump has been a “terrible” president in his second term, and about 1 in 10 say he has been “poor.” In contrast, about 3 in 10 say he's “great" or "good," while just under 2 in 10 say he's “average.”
Most haven’t been shocked by the drama of Trump’s first 100 days. About 7 in 10 U.S. adults say the first few months of Trump’s second term were mostly what they expected, and only about 3 in 10 say the Republican president’s actions were mostly unexpected.
That does not mean they are pleased.
In fact, Democrats seem even unhappier with the reality of the second Trump term than before he was sworn in on Jan. 20. About three-quarters of Democrats say Trump is focused on the wrong topics and about 7 in 10 think he's a “terrible” president so far. That is an increase from January, when about 6 in 10 anticipated he would be “terrible.”
Rahsaan Henderson, 40, a Democrat from California, said “it has been one of the longest 100 days I’ve ever had to sit through.”
“I think the next four years will be a test of seeing who can resist the most and continue defying whatever he’s trying to do, since he defies everything, including the Supreme Court,” he said.
Republicans largely stand behind the president, but are ambivalent about what he chose to emphasize. About 7 in 10 say he's at least a “good” president. Only about half say he mostly had the right priorities so far; about one-quarter say it's been about an even mix and about 1 in 10 said Trump mostly had the wrong priorities.
“He’s really doing the stuff that he said he was going to do,” said Tanner Bergstrom, 29, a Republican from Minnesota. He is “not making a bunch of promises and getting into office and nothing happens. … I really like that. Even if it’s some stuff I don’t agree with, it’s still doing what he said he was going to do.”
Those who were surprised by Trump’s first few months seem to have had a rude awakening. The people who say Trump’s actions were not what they expected — who are mostly Democrats and independents — are more likely to say Trump had mostly the wrong priorities and has been a poor or terrible president, compared with the people who mostly expected his actions.
About 4 in 10 in the survey approve of how Trump is handling the presidency overall. The issue of immigration is a relative strength. According to the poll, 46% of U.S. adults approve of his handling of the issue — slightly higher than his overall approval.
However, there are indications that foreign policy, trade negotiations and the economy could prove problematic.
Trump’s approval on those issues is much lower than it is on immigration. Only about 4 in 10 U.S. adults approve of how he is handling each. Republicans are less likely to approve of Trump’s approach to trade and the economy than immigration.
The AP-NORC poll of 1,260 adults was conducted April 17-21, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
There are additional signals that some Trump supporters may not be thrilled with his performance so far. The share of Republicans who say he's at least a “good” president fell about 10 percentage points since January. They also grew a bit more likely to say Trump will be either “poor” or “terrible,” though only 16% describe his first few months that way.
Republican Stephanie Melnyk, 45, of Tennessee voted for Trump largely for his positions on immigration. She is supportive of Trump’s handling of the presidency but not his handling of foreign affairs, particularly the war in Ukraine. Her family emigrated from Ukraine and she said Trump is “trying for a quick fix that’s not going to last” and Russian President Vladimir Putin “is not to be trusted.”
It’s common for a president’s standing to be at its best before taking office and beginning the work of governing.
About 4 in 10 Americans have a favorable opinion of Trump, roughly in line with his approval number.
About 8 in 10 Republicans have a positive view of the president, and about the same share approves of how he is handling the presidency. About one-third of U.S. adults have a favorable opinion of Vice President JD Vance, including about 7 in 10 Republicans.
Republicans interviewed were particularly fond of efforts to scale back the size of the federal government led by billionaire outside adviser Elon Musk and Trump’s cost-cutting initiative, the Department of Government Efficiency.
Democrats have a much bleaker outlook on the economy than they held before Trump took office. The poll also found that the vast majority of Democrats think he has “gone too far” on deportations and tariffs.
