Slightly more Americans approve of President Donald Trump’s performance over his first two weeks back in office (46%) than disapprove (44%), according to a new Economist/YouGov poll. The pollsters note that Trumps +2 net approval rating is higher than the -1 net rating at this point in his first term but lower than President Joe Biden’s +8 rating at the same point in his presidency. Trump’s net approval is also down from +6 just last week.
The survey also finds that many or most Americans oppose some of the plans at the heart of Trump’s agenda. Just 30% believe that all or most of the executive orders issued by Trump in recent days have been constitutional and just 13% say they want Elon Musk to have a lot of influence in the administration, while 46% say they'd rather Musk have no influence.
Among the poll findings:
* 56% say they are against dissolving the Department of Education, double the 28% who support it;
* 50% don’t like the idea of firing FBI agents involved in investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, compared with 32% who support it;
* 49% oppose the plan to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, compared to 33% who back it;
* 54% don’t like Trump’s renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
The poll also finds that most Americans have favorable views of some federal agencies that Trump and Musk are targeting, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Emergency Management Agency — though in many cases the opinions are deeply divided along partisan lines (see below). More than half of Americans also support increasing funding for Social Security (68%), Medicare (62%) and Medicaid (52%).
