Trump approval rating sinks to 40%, the lowest of his term, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds
U.S. President Donald Trump gestures before boarding Air Force One as he returns to Washington, D.C., in Lossiemouth, Scotland, Britain, July 29, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump's approval rating dropped one percentage point to 40%, the lowest level of his second term in office, as Americans remained concerned about his handling of the economy and immigration, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
The three-day poll, which closed on Monday, surveyed 1,023 U.S. adults nationwide and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points. It showed a nation deeply polarized over Trump, with 83% of Republicans and just 3% of Democrats approving of his performance. About one-third of independents approved.
Trump had a 41% approval rating in Reuters/Ipsos' most recent prior poll, conducted on July 15 and 16.
The Republican campaigned on promises to supercharge the U.S. economy and crack down on immigration, and the poll found that Americans gave him mixed marks on both those areas, where his administration is using aggressive tactics.
Some 38% of respondents approved of Trump's handling of the economy, up from 35% approval in the mid-July poll. His numbers were also up slightly on immigration, with 43% of respondents approving, compared with 41% in the earlier poll.
All the shifts were within the poll's margin of error. REUTERS
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


AsiaOne
28 minutes ago
- AsiaOne
Ghislaine Maxwell moved to prison camp, Trump says no plea for pardon, World News
Ghislaine Maxwell has been transferred from a Florida prison to a lower-security facility in Texas to continue serving her 20-year sentence for helping the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls, the US Bureau of Prisons said on Friday (Aug 1). Maxwell's move from FCI Tallahassee, a low-security prison, to the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, comes a week after she met with Deputy US Attorney General Todd Blanche, who said he wanted to speak with her about anyone else who may have been involved in Epstein's crimes. Maxwell's lawyer, David Markus, confirmed she was moved but said he had no other comment. Spokespeople for the US Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Asked during a White House interview with Newsmax on Friday about the possibility of pardoning Maxwell, President Donald Trump said, "I'm allowed to do it, but nobody's asked me to do it." He added, "I know nothing about the case." Asked about what was discussed between Maxwell and the deputy attorney general last week, Trump said he believed Blanche "just wants to make sure that innocent people aren't hurt" should documents in the Epstein probe be released. The BOP classifies prison camps such as Bryan as minimum-security institutions, the lowest of five security levels in the federal system. Such facilities have limited or no perimeter fencing. Low-security facilities such as FCI Tallahassee have double-fenced perimeters and higher staff-to-inmate ratios than prison camps, according to the bureau. Asked why Maxwell was transferred, BOP spokesperson Donald Murphy said he could not comment on the specifics of any incarcerated individual's prison assignment, but that the BOP determines where inmates are sent based on such factors as "the level of security and supervision the inmate requires." Blanche's meeting with Maxwell came as Trump faces pressure from both his base of conservative supporters and congressional Democrats to release more information from the Justice Department's investigations of Maxwell and Epstein. [[nid:720777]] The department is seeking court approval to release transcripts of law enforcement officers' testimony before the grand juries that indicted Maxwell and Epstein. Such transcripts are usually kept secret. Two federal judges in Manhattan are weighing the government's requests. Lawyers for Maxwell, Epstein, and their alleged victims are due to share their positions on the potential unsealing with the judges in filings on Tuesday. Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. He had pleaded not guilty. Neither Markus nor Blanche has provided detailed accounts of what they discussed. Markus has said Maxwell would welcome relief from Trump. Maxwell was found guilty at a 2021 trial of recruiting and grooming girls for Epstein to abuse. She had pleaded not guilty and is asking the US Supreme Court to overturn her conviction.
Business Times
28 minutes ago
- Business Times
China state media asks Nvidia to prove H20 chips are secure
[HONG KONG] China state media is calling for Nvidia to prove that its H20 chip is secure, saying it cannot allow flawed chips into the country. China's top Internet watchdog summoned Nvidia representatives earlier this week to discuss what Chinese officials called significant security vulnerabilities in the H20. The Cyberspace Administration of China said that Nvidia would need to explain potential security risks and provide documents as needed, citing comments by US lawmakers about the need to install tracking capabilities on advanced chips being exported. 'As soon as 'backdoors' in chips are triggered, we can encounter a 'nightmare',' the People's Daily, a mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party, said in a commentary on Friday (Aug 1). 'We need to maintain the security of the cyberspace and we cannot allow 'infected' chips to be put to work.' More scrutiny of the artificial intelligence (AI) chip would throw a wrench China's already-contentious trade talks with the US. Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia had designed the H20 to comply with US export controls on its technology, and the company was hoping to start sales after the US granted a license. 'Cybersecurity is critically important to us,' Nvidia said on Thursday. 'Nvidia does not have 'backdoors' in our chips that would give anyone a remote way to access or control them.' US and Chinese officials met in Stockholm this week to discuss trade terms in talks that Chinese state media said that 'deepened mutual trust', though the two sides still have several disagreements over the potential new tariffs. The warning in People's Daily may signal that Chinese officials don't find H20s, which are less powerful than Nvidia's most high-end chips, to be worthy offerings. The Trump administration in April barred Nvidia from selling H20s to China in an escalation of the ongoing tech war between the world's two largest economies. Trump officials then pledged to lift those restrictions in July as part of a trade deal for China to allow more sales of rare-earth magnets needed to make a range of high-tech products. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had touted the resumption of sales of the H20 as a breakthrough that came from bilateral discussions in London, framing it as a concession to China. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, meanwhile, said earlier this week that the magnet issue has been 'solved'. However, it is unclear whether Nvidia has received licenses to resume shipping those semiconductors. Nvidia boss Jensen Huang himself recently concluded a high-profile visit to Beijing, where he feted national Chinese champions such as DeepSeek and celebrated the country's rising prowess in AI. The billionaire had denied Nvidia installed backdoors in its product, saying that would not make business sense. BLOOMBERG


AsiaOne
an hour ago
- AsiaOne
South Korea says it has no written pact on US trade deal, Asia News
SEOUL - There is no written agreement yet on a trade deal between South Korea and the United States announced by President Donald Trump this week, the Asian nation's trade minister said on Friday (Aug 1). The US tariff on South Korean imports will be 15 per cent, Trump said after meeting its ministers on Wednesday, down from a threatened 25 per cent, but the US gave scarce details, apart from social media posts by him and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Speaking to reporters as he arrived home from a visit to Washington, Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo said the two sides had an oral negotiation because of time constraints. "What we felt during this negotiation is that the US trade environment is fundamentally changing. This is completely different from the first Trump term," Yeo said of the deal easing tension with a top-10 trading partner and key Asian ally. "I think we are entering a new normal era. So, although we have overcome this crisis, we cannot be relieved, because we do not know when we will face pressure from tariffs or non-tariff measures again." The White House, which issued factsheets on trade deals with Japan and the European Union a day after striking them, has not yet released a separate one on the pact with South Korea. Trump said South Korea would invest $350 (S$450 billion) billion in the United States in projects "owned and controlled by the United States" and selected by him. Lutnick said 90 per cent of profits from the investments would go to the American people, while White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said they would go to the US government to help repay debt. More discussions were necessary on the investment fund's profit structure, said Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan, who returned with Yeo. [[nid:720806]] Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol, also one of the negotiation team, said detailed plans for the $350-billion investment would need be established. Wednesday's deal did not tackle most non-tariff barriers discussed during working-level talks, as well as security and foreign exchange aspects.