Across nearly every major polling organization in mid-April, the picture of Trump’s approval is remarkably uniform, persistently underwater and stubbornly static.
NBC News/SurveyMonkey has him at 37% approve, 63% disapprove. YouGov/Economist puts him at 38% approve, 56% disapprove. Quinnipiac has 38% approve, 55% disapprove. The range across pollsters sits between 37% and 45%, with the average firmly underwater.
CNN’s chief data analyst Harry Enten has a simple label for it, describing Trump as the weakest president this century at this point in a second term, noting, “he is weaker than any modern president at this stage.”
The Iran war is the primary driver.
Roughly two thirds of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the conflict, a number that barely moved after the two-week ceasefire announced on April 7. Almost all Democrats and 82% of independents disapprove of his war handling. More striking is that 26% of Republicans disapprove of the war specifically, a higher figure than the 17% who disapprove of his overall job performance. His own base is drawing a distinction between him and his war.
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The economy compounds it.
Trump’s net approval on the economy sits at -22 according to the Silver Bulletin average, while his inflation approval is -34. CNN put his economy approval at a career low of 31%. 40% of Americans say their personal financial situation is worse than it was a year ago. Only 19% say things are better.
Among men, a demographic Trump has dominated, his approval has slipped to 41% with 52% disapproving, the lowest of his second term with that group. Among Gen Z it is starker. An Economist/YouGov poll put his approval among voters aged 18 to 29 at just 25%, with 67% disapproving. That minus 42 rating is the lowest recorded for that age group in that survey series.
Young Republicans are driving part of that decline, an unusual and notable shift for a party that counted on them in 2024.
CNN’s rolling average shows Trump has remained underwater every single day since March 12, 2025. That is over 400 consecutive days of more Americans disapproving than approving. For a second-term president that is an unusually prolonged stretch, and it carries direct consequences for the 2026 midterms.
The White House has a standing response to all of it. Spokesman Davis Ingle said in an emailed statement: “The ultimate poll was November 5, 2024, when nearly 80 million Americans overwhelmingly elected President Trump to deliver on his popular and common-sense agenda.”
Trump himself told the New York Post: “I think that the polling is very good, but I don’t care about polling. I have to do the right thing.”
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
