Most Americans disapprove of the job President Trump is doing since returning to the White House, according to a new CNN poll. Nearly 60% of those surveyed call Trump’s views and policies too extreme and say the president hasn't paid enough attention to the country’s most important problems. And for the first time ever in CNN’s polling, most Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy.
In the new poll, conducted for CNN by SSRS from March 6-9, just 45% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s performance, compared to 54% who disapprove. The approval percentage matches the highest mark Trump reached during his first term, but it trails the approval rating for every other president dating back to Jimmy Carter, as measured in March of their first terms. All other presidents were above 50% early on in their terms.
On the economy, 42% of those polled called it the most important issue facing the country today, choosing it from a list of seven options. But 56% disapprove of Trump’s approach, while 44% approve. It’s the first time in CNN poll dating back to January 2017 that more than 50% of the public has a negative view of Trump’s steering of the economy.
An even larger share, 61%, now disapproves of Trump’s tariff policy, while 39% approve. Americans also give Trump low ratings on foreign policy more broadly (58% disapprove) and healthcare (56% disapprove).
Trump get his highest marks for his handling of immigration (51% approve), while views of his performance on the federal budget and management of the federal government are closely divided, though in each case a slight majority (52% and 51%, respectively) disapproves.
Nearly nine in 10 Americans, including more than 75% of Republicans, independents and Democrats, say that Trump is taking “a completely different approach to presidential power” than past presidents. About half of those surveyed called that a bad thing, but 37% said it was a good thing. And half of adults said that Trump can bring about the kind of change the country needs, with a slim minority, 49%, also saying he can manage the government effectively. Just 38% say he respects the rule of law, and just 34% think he will unite the country rather than divide it.
The White House might take some slight measure of comfort in the poll’s finding that 35% of Americans say that things are going well in the country today — as dismal as that number might be, it’s up from 29% as of January, before Trump took office, helped by a surge in Republican sentiment.
Trump’s approval rating is also higher than those of Elon Musk (35%) and Vice President JD Vance (33%). More than six in 10 respondents said that Musk lacks the experience or judgment necessary to change the way the federal government works. And 62% say they are more worried that the Trump administration’s cuts to the federal government will go too far and important federal government programs will be shut down. A far smaller 37% say they fear the cuts won’t go far enough in eliminating government waste, though 73% of Republicans chose that option.
The poll was conducted among 1,206 U.S. adults and has an overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.
