Donald Trump remains broadly unpopular, with record low job approval among Independents and a record high 49% of Americans who say they strongly disapprove of Trump's job handling
What you need to know about Americans' views on Donald Trump, as of the January 23 - 26, 2026 Economist / YouGov Poll:
- 39% of Americans strongly or somewhat approve of Donald Trump's job performance, and 57% disapprove, for a net approval of -18
- That net approval is up slightly from last week's -20, but lower than Trump's net approval of -13 at this point in his first term
- Polling of presidential approval within subgroups can be volatile. Last week, Trump's net job approval among Republicans fell to +62 from +77 the week before. That was a record low in job approval among Republicans for Trump's second term
- But this week Trump has a +72 net job approval among Republicans, suggesting that the magnitude of his decline in last week's poll may have been due in part to normal survey variation
- Despite weekly variation, the long-term trend is that Republican approval of Trump's job as president has been declining since the start of his second term, when he had a net job approval among Republicans of +91
- 27% of Independents approve of Trump's job handling and 67% disapprove — a net job approval of -40
- That's a record-low net job approval for Trump among Independents, in either his first or second terms
- The net job approval of -40 among Independents is a steep drop from last week, when Trump's net job approval with the group was -31
- It's too early to say how much this drop reflects a long-term decline in approval among Independents and how much is weekly survey variation
- 49% of Americans strongly disapprove of Trump's job as president, a new high for Trump's second term
- That's twice as many as the 23% of Americans who strongly approve of Trump's job handling
- 56% of Republicans strongly approve of Trump's job handling, while 87% of Democrats strongly disapprove of it
- Nearly half (45%) of Americans believe Trump is suffering from both some amount of cognitive decline and some amount of physical decline
- Majorities of Democrats believe he is suffering severe cognitive (66%) or physical (56%) decline
- Majorities of Republicans think he isn't suffering any decline
- Views on Trump's cognitive and physical state have changed little since we last posed these questions on a different poll earlier this month
Image: Getty (Win McNamee / Staff)
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