Pollster Nate Silver says the share of Americans who disapprove of President Donald Trump is now higher than it was at the same point in his first term.
In a post on X, the statistician noted that 55.9 percent of Americans currently disapprove of Trump, compared to 54.9 percent around the same time in 2017.
Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment outside normal business hours.
Why It Matters
Approval ratings are useful in gauging the public’s response to Trump’s policies and Trump’s approval rating will affect how voters behave in the November 2026 midterm elections. Republicans have a narrow majority of 219 to 214 in the House of Representatives, so even losing a handful of seats could cost them their majority and impact the GOP’s ability to push through its agenda.
What To Know
Silver, who founded 538, a website that offers opinion poll analysis, said that Trump’s net approval rating found that 55.9 percent disapprove of Trump, one percent more than the proportion who disapproved of him at a similar moment toward the end of 2017, the first year of his first term.
“His net approval rating is still slightly better than his 1st term,” he wrote on X on Saturday. “But the trajectory remains negative. Epstein/the economy/general fatigue with Trump is outweighing any post-shutdown recovery so far.”
Trump has been hit with a backlash over his handling of files associated with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. His administration initially pledged to release documents linked to investigations into the convicted sex offender then backtracked. Congress has now voted for their full release.
Meanwhile, Trump’s economic policies including tariffs have caused disquiet among the American population while the recent government shutdown affected key services and confidence in the administration.
It comes amid other broader negative polling about the president. A recent poll by The Economist/YouGov found Trump’s approval rating at its lowest level since he returned to office in January, 39 percent of people approving of the job he is doing, and 58 percent disapproving, a net approval rating of -19 points.
Meanwhile, a Fox News poll found this week that 76 percent of voters view the economy negatively. This makes Trump less popular on the economy than former President Joe Biden. At the end of his presidency in 2024, Fox News polling showed that 70 percent of people viewed the economy negatively.
Mark Shanahan, who teaches American politics at the University of Surrey in the U.K., told Newsweek: “The Trump presidency this time round is none of the novelty and all of the stress. It’s still a soap opera, but one with a nasty edge from Epstein to ICE. Any politician has only one chance to make a first impression and Trump’s has been and gone.