Twice as many Americans say they strongly disapprove of President Donald Trump’s second term than those who strongly approve, according to a new poll.
In a survey from YouGov and The Economist, conducted Aug. 15-18, two-thirds of respondents said they have strong feelings about Trump — and, increasingly, most of them are negative. The poll found 47% said they strongly disapprove of the second-term president, compared to 23% who say they strongly approve.
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About 70% of Americans say they either “strongly approve” or “strongly disapprove” of Trump’s job performance, while 27% say they have a more muted opinion of the president. That includes people who either “somewhat approve” or “somewhat disapprove.”
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When broken down along party lines, most Democrats say they disapprove of Trump, and most Republicans approve of him, matching what has been a consistent theme among polling since the Republican took office a second time in January.
The YouGov/Economist poll found Democrats’ sentiment toward the president is even stronger than Republicans’, with 83% of Democrats saying they strongly disapprove of him. Among his Republican supporters, a little over half describe their approval in similarly passionate terms, with 54% saying they strongly approve of his performance.
That’s a shift from earlier in Trump’s second term, according to an Aug. 22 YouGov analysis of the data.
In January ,a majority still said they had a strong opinion about Trump, with 69% either strongly approving or disapproving. But unlike the most recent poll, 36% of Americans strongly disapproved of Trump at the time, and 34% strongly approved.
That’s an 11-point increase in respondents who strongly disapprove of the president from the beginning of his term to recent weeks. Similarly, the August survey shows a nine-point drop since January among those who say they strongly approve of him.
The poll surveyed 1,568 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of ±3.5 percentage points. Overall approval ratings put the president at a 40% approval and 56% disapproval mark.
Aggregations of recent approval polling from The New York Times and RealClearPolitics place Trump’s approval between 44% and 45%, respectively, with disapproval rates of 53% and 50%, as of Aug. 24.
A historical analysis and average by Gallup shows Trump’s approval ratings in the first July of both of his terms are lower than those of any other modern president. In comparison, former President Joe Biden had a 50% average approval rating in July 2021, while former President Barack Obama’s first and second-term July approval ratings were 57% and 46%, respectively. Gallup’s analysis puts Trump’s second-term average to date at 42%.
Kathryn Palmer is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kapalmer@usatoday.com and on X @KathrynPlmr.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Poll measures how much people strongly approve or disapprove of Trump
