Trump's approval rating drops to lowest level since return to White House
Photo: Donald Trump, President of the United States (Getty Images)
Public approval of Donald Trump's actions in the US has dropped to its lowest level since the start of his second presidential term. Americans are showing concern over the president's attempts to expand his power, according to Reuters.
About 42% of respondents in a new six-day survey conducted by Ipsos approved of Donald Trump's performance as US president. This is one percentage point lower than in the Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted three weeks earlier.
By comparison, polling conducted just hours after Trump's inauguration on January 20 showed a 47% approval rating among Americans.
"The start of Trump's term has left his political opponents stunned as he has signed dozens of executive orders expanding his influence over both government departments and over private institutions such as universities and law firms," Reuters reported.
The Western news agency also pointed out that Trump's approval rating remains higher than those recorded during most of the presidency of his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, according to Reuters/Ipsos data.
At the same time, current trends suggest that many Americans are "uncomfortable" with Trump's attempts to "punish universities he sees as too liberal and to install himself as the board chair of the Kennedy Center, a major theater and cultural institution in Washington."
About 83% of 4,306 respondents stated that the US president should comply with federal court rulings, even if he disagrees.
57%, including one-third of Republicans, disagree with the statement that "it's okay for a US president to withhold funding from universities if the president doesn’t agree with how the university is run."
Trump, who claimed that universities are unable to combat anti-Semitism on campus, previously froze large amounts of federal money allocated to universities in the US, including over $2 billion specifically for Harvard University.
66% of respondents stated that they do not believe the president should control major cultural institutions, such as national museums and theaters. This follows Trump's March order for the Smithsonian Institution to remove "inappropriate" ideology.
The Reuters/Ipsos survey revealed that on various issues - from inflation and immigration to taxation and the rule of law - Americans who disapprove of Trump’s actions outnumber those who approve of each issue in the survey.
For example, 46% disapproved of Trump's handling of immigration, while 45% approved. The margin of error in the survey was about 2 percentage points.
Additionally, about 59% of respondents - including one-third of Republicans - stated that America is losing trust on the world stage.
Three-quarters of respondents (including a majority of Republicans - 53%) stated that Trump should not run for a third term in the US, even though the US Constitution prohibits him from doing so.
Trump's approval rating decline
In early April, a three-day Reuters/Ipsos survey was published, showing that Trump's approval rating as president had decreased by 2 percentage points compared to the survey conducted from March 21-23, and by 4 points below the 47% approval he had shortly after taking office on January 20.
The survey highlighted that Trump is facing public dissatisfaction with his economic and foreign policies, scandals within his administration, and his military strategy.
According to the latest sociological survey by KMIS (released on April 1), Ukrainians are increasingly disappointed with Trump's policies and do not expect anything positive from the US president in the future.
