Americans vent disappointment with Trump ahead of his 100-day mark, especially on tariffs

Posted by Marc Trussler | 3 weeks ago | News | Views: 14



Americans are delivering a negative verdict on President Donald Trump’s performance as he nears the 100-day mark of his second term, according to a new NBC News Stay Tuned Poll, powered by SurveyMonkey. That includes a sharp divide on his handling of immigration, long his strongest issue in polls, and deep disapproval of Trump’s tariffs.

Overall, the results show a majority of American adults — 55% — disapprove of the way Trump is handling his job as president, while 45% approve. What’s more, the vehemence of the opposition outweighs the intensity of support from the president’s MAGA base.

Just over 4 in 10 Americans strongly disapprove of the job the president is doing, while only a quarter strongly approve. And when asked to label the emotions Trump evokes, strong negatives like “angry” and “furious” outweighed responses for the strongest positives, “happy” and “thrilled.”

Those broad assessments come as Trump falls short of majority support on any specific policy issues tested in the survey. On immigration, a strength of his throughout the 2024 campaign and still his best issue among those polled, adults were split, with 49% approving of his handling of border security and immigration and 51% disapproving. Meanwhile, the tariffs at the center of Trump’s economic agenda (and of recent news coverage of his administration) earned Trump’s lowest issue ratings, with 39% approving of his handling of the issue and 61% disapproving.

More from the NBC News Stay Tuned Poll

The results reflect responses from 19,682 adults who were surveyed from April 11-20, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points. And they illustrate a tough road ahead for the Trump administration unless something shifts.

Sixty percent of Americans said the United States is on the wrong track, compared to 40% who said it’s on the right track. Republicans were the group most likely to say the country is on the right track (80%), including 89% of Republicans who identify as MAGA-aligned — the core of Trump’s base.

When looking at the intersection of race, gender and college attendance, the only group where a majority thinks the country is on the right track is white men without college degrees (54%).

There are predictable partisan splits on how people see Trump, with the vast majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning respondents (88%) approving of the job Trump is doing, while only 7% of Democrats and Democratic leaners do. Critically, adults who identify as independents are far more likely to disapprove (68%) than approve (32%). 

Looking beyond a simple measure of approval reveals even larger asymmetry in how Americans feel about the Trump presidency. A majority of adults overall (51%) have negative feelings about the actions the Trump administration has taken so far, with 23% saying they are furious. On the other side, 32% have positive feelings toward the administration, with 13% feeling thrilled about its actions so far. 

Among partisans, Democrats have stronger negative feelings toward the Trump administration than Republicans have positive feelings. Nine in 10 Democrats said they are dissatisfied, angry or furious with the administration, including 52% who said they are furious. By contrast, three-quarters of Republicans reported having positive feelings toward the Trump administration, including 32% who said they’re thrilled.

One outstanding question for the Democratic Party is whether it can capitalize on the anger felt in its base — and to what degree its voters might take out some of those feelings in their own party’s primaries. The poll also shows that the Democratic Party has significant work to do to convince people it is up to the task of taking on the Trump administration, as a plurality of adults say that they believe neither party fights for people like them.

Trump’s marks on the issues

When it comes to particular issues tackled by the administration, Trump is relatively more popular on social than economic issues — but his ceiling on any issue tested in the poll was 49%, shy of a majority. 

The poll found that the economy is the most important issue to Americans, but just 40% approve of Trump’s handling of inflation and the cost of living. A nearly identical 39% approve of Trump’s handling of trade and tariffs, showing how closely the two issues have become linked amid concerns that the tariffs could drive price increases.

Meanwhile, a 44% plurality of Americans said the economic matter that’s most important to them and their family right now is inflation and the rising cost of living, consistent across every demographic group. About a third of Americans said their personal finance situation is worse today compared to a year ago, while 22% said their financial situation is better today and the remainder said it’s about the same. 

Approval of the Trump administration’s policies on societal issues like immigration and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives is slightly higher. On DEI, where the Trump administration has moved to undo federal government programs and limit funding to or investigate universities and other institutions with DEI programs, 44% of Americans approve of Trump’s efforts on the issue, and 49% support the way he is handling border security and immigration.

But questions digging into specifics in those policy areas of relative strength highlight risk for Trump. Around 6 in 10 Americans oppose visa revocation and the deportation of immigrants in the country legally who have been critical or have protested against Israel’s military action in Gaza, and 8 in 10 say legal due process for immigrants is “somewhat” or “very” important.

When it comes to DEI, 65% say efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in schools and workplaces are helpful, not harmful.

Breaking down these issues by party, this poll finds that independents are more in line with Democrats than with Republicans on their assessment of Trump.

Eighty-three percent of Republicans approve of the way Trump is handling inflation and the cost of living. By contrast, 93% of Democrats disapprove — as do 75% of independents.

There are similar partisan divides when it comes to Trump’s handling of trade and tariffs: 8 in 10 Republicans approve, compared to the 94% of Democrats and, once again, 75% of independents who disapprove.

And on Trump’s handling of border security and immigration, 92% of Republicans approve, compared to a mirror-image 88% of Democrats who disapprove. A majority of independents also disapprove (59%), although independents were more likely to approve of Trump’s handling of immigration than any other issue, with 41% giving him a positive mark.

Republican men were slightly more approving of Trump’s issue policies than Republican women (5 percentage points higher on average), while Democrats were more closely aligned in their disapproval regardless of gender.

Independent men are 4 to 5 points more likely to approve of Trump on economic issues than independent women and 9 points more approving of Trump on social issues, indicating a gender divide among independents on their feelings toward the current administration.

This NBC News Stay Tuned poll was powered by SurveyMonkey, the fast, intuitive feedback management platform where 20 million questions are answered daily. It was conducted online April 11-20 among a national sample of 19,682 adults ages 18 and over. Reported percentages exclude item nonresponse and round to the nearest percentage point. The estimated margin of error for this survey among all adults is plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.



NBC News

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