President Donald Trump's approval rating saw a sudden shift in two new polls.
Trump is reported to be back to a 50% total approval rating, according to the daily Rasmussen Reports poll, having dropped to 47%, the lowest of any point during his second of two non-consecutive presidential terms, last week. The president was also reported to tie his all-time highest rating of 54% in the latest DailyMail.com/J.L. Partners poll released this week.
It's worth noting that both polls were produced by conservative-leaning media outlets amid several others showing the opposite trend. Trump is reported to have recently gotten his "worst set of polling data" during his "entire second term as president," CNN data guru Harry Enten said during a live broadcast on Tuesday (April 15) referencing the latest CBS News/YouGov poll.
“I would argue this is the worst set of polling data that Donald Trump has had in his entire second term as president,” Enten said. “In part, because the CBS News/YouGov poll that came out yesterday has been one of his best.”
Enten compared the latest CBS News/YouGov poll to past surveys during Trump's second of two non-consecutive terms in office. The new poll showed that Trump's approval rating dipped from 53% in February to 47% in April, while 53% of respondents said the economy ws getting worse, a percentage that has increased from 49% in February and 42% in November.
“The majority of Americans think that the economy is getting worse,” Enten said. “It’s an 11-point jump from November to now, and of course Donald Trump won the 2024 election because he promised to fix the economy and yet views of the economy are going down. The percentage of those who say it’s getting worse are going up.”
Several other polls showed that the president had his lowest approval rating of his second term in recent weeks.
Trump's job performance was reported to have a 41% approval rating and 53% disapproval rating among registered voters in the latest poll released by Quinnipiac on April 9; a 46% approval rating in the latest Morning Consult Pro poll released earlier this week; and a 45% favorable to 52% unfavorable (-7.7 margin) ratio in the latest Economist poll conducted on April 9, all of which are record lows since the beginning of his second of two non-consecutive terms in January. The president was also previously reported to have dropped to a record low 47% approval rating in Rasmussen polls conducted earlier this week before increasing to 48% on April 11.
Trump was also reported to see a drop in support among his own party with 86% of Republicans saying they approved his job performance in the latest Quinnipiac poll. A majority 72% of respondents said they believed Trump's sweeping international tariffs would hurt the U.S. economy in the short-term and 53% said they would have a long-term negative impact as well, while 22% said they think the tariffs would have a positive effect on the U.S. economy.
Trump previously announced that the U.S. would impose trade barriers on American exports as part of sweeping "reciprocal" tariffs on other countries, which he dubbed "Liberation Day," before announcing a 90-day pause.
"For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far. ... Foreign leaders have stolen our jobs, foreign cheaters have ransacked our factories and foreign scavengers have torn apart our once beautiful American dream," Trump said during his initial 'Liberation Day' announcement via Yahoo! News.
"But it is not going to happen anymore," he continued. "Reciprocal — that means they do it to us, and we do it to them. Very simple. Can't get any simpler than that."
The United States stock market experienced a significant downturn as the tariffs and trade wars were initiated, seeing the largest decline since the 2020 stock market crash influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic during Trump's first of two non-consecutive presidential terms. The stock market rose by more than 9% after the announced tariff pause, however, dropped once again the following morning, according to CNBC.