4 days ago
Donald Trump approval rating: tracking the opinion polls
Donald Trump made a lot of promises on the campaign trail in 2024. Using a range of data sources, The Times is measuring just how closely he is sticking to them — and tracking the president's approval rating throughout his time in office.
See the latest graphs, tables, charts and opinion poll trackers below:
Dire approval ratings for most of the past four years were no impediment to Trump getting re-elected: he won the popular vote last November despite most Americans having an unfavourable view of him.
Immediately after the election, Americans had a slightly more positive view of Trump. Most terms begin with a 'honeymoon' period when voters are broadly happy with the president's performance. A sustained dip in approval since Trump began threatening America's trading partners with sweeping tariffs, dismissing warnings that this may lead to recession, suggests that honeymoon period ended within about three months.
At this stage of their presidencies, Barack Obama and Joe Biden held a superior favourability score over Trump, and he is now about level with where Biden was at the end of his four years, according to Gallup.
The economy was central to Trump's pitch to voters in November last year, but a turbulent start in office led to the public questioning his handling of it. According to YouGov, approval of Trump's economic performance has fallen from plus 12 in January to about minus 12.
How do presidents measure success? For Trump, the performance of big business has always been part of his sell.
The S&P 500, which lists the stock prices of 500 of the largest companies on US exchanges, has had a mixed start under him. In the 12 months before he became president, stock prices had risen by about 24 per cent. Since he entered office for a second time, growth was largely trending in the opposite direction, before significant volatility after his announcement of sweeping tariffs on April 2. Performance has been noticeably better since May.
Overall, the market's performance has been worse than in previous terms and is similar to President Bush's first term, when the dotcom bubble caused markets to collapse in 2000.
Another way of measuring stock market chaos is the Vix, sometimes known as the 'fear index', which measures volatility. After Trump's 'liberation day', the index rose to levels not seen since the Covid pandemic and the financial crisis. Trump will be pleased that fear in the markets has somewhat stabilised. However, updated tariff rates at the end of July might lead to some market unrest.
In his first few weeks in office, Trump issued more than 50 executive orders, including on 'emergency price relief', officially recognising only two genders and ordering the completion of the southern border wall.
Trump has been issuing more orders at a faster pace than any president in living memory.
You can view a full list of them in the table below:
Just as prominent in Trump's campaign was his push on cryptocurrencies: he vowed to make the United States the 'crypto capital of the planet'.
Since taking office he has issued orders that revoke cryptocurrency regulations and has confirmed plans for a US crypto reserve. The price of bitcoin, the most common cryptocurrency, grew enormously towards the end of last year and has remained high.
Federal agencies were ordered to deliver 'emergency price relief' and other measures to bring down the cost of living. The consumer price index (CPI) measure of annual inflation peaked at 9.1 per cent under Biden in June 2022 but has since fallen and has been stable below 3 per cent since January this year.
Grocery prices remain much higher than voters have been used to and the price of eggs, pushed upwards by bird flu, has become a key inflationary barometer for consumers. The price in March, $6.23 for a dozen, was a record high but has since fallen. Trump will be judged on whether he can keep reducing the price.
Trump has made tackling illegal immigration a key measure of his presidency, declaring a national emergency on the southern border on his first day in office and ordering the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to increase deportations.
It produced an immediate effect, coinciding with a sustained reduction in net immigration.
The rush to deport has involved some controversial cases, with several families of men flown to a high-security jail in El Salvador contending that they received no chance to appeal and were mistakenly identified as criminal gang members.
ICE raids also catalysed anti-deportation protests across the country in June, the most incendiary of them in Los Angeles, where one protest escalated into more than a week of violent clashes with the authorities.
This article is regularly updated
