Around 42% of respondents who took part in the six-day poll approve of President Donald Trump’s performance as President, the lowest level of support since his return to the White House. Americans are overwhelmingly concerned about his efforts to expand his powers, according to the Reuters/Ipsos poll, which closed on Monday, the 22nd of April.
In the previous poll, conducted three weeks earlier, 43% of respondents had a positive view of Trump’s performance, compared with 47% immediately after his inauguration on the 20th of January.
The agency notes that Trump’s approval rating is still higher than most of his predecessor Joe Biden’s, the lowest of which was in October 2024, when it slipped to 35%.
According to the agency’s polling on a wide range of issues, from inflation and immigration to taxes and the rule of law, more Americans disapprove of Trump’s performance than approve.
Even on immigration, where he had the most support, 45% of respondents supported him, while 46% disapproved. The poll could be off by around two percentage points.
IN ADDITION, 59% OF PEOPLE, INCLUDING ABOUT A THIRD OF REPUBLICANS, SAID THE US IS LOSING RESPECT AROUND THE WORLD.
Three quarters also said that Trump should not run for a third term, which he has said he wants to do even though the US constitution does not allow it. A majority of Republicans – 53% – also said Trump should not seek a third term.
The poll shows that many Americans are alarmed by his actions – in particular his efforts to punish universities that he believes are too liberal and his own intention to become head of the Kennedy Center, a major cultural centre in Washington.
Some 83% of the 4 306 people surveyed said that the US President should respect the decisions of the federal courts, even if he disagrees with them. One such court decision is the deportation of suspected Venezuelan gang members, which a judge has ordered to be stopped, and Trump administration officials could face criminal charges for ignoring the judge’s order, particularly because the deportees had no opportunity to defend themselves.
Fifty-seven percent of respondents – including a third of Republicans – disagreed with the statement that “the President of the United States can defund universities if he disagrees with how the university is run”.
Trump, who has claimed that universities are failing to fight anti-Semitism, has frozen a huge amount of federal funding for US universities and higher education institutions, including more than two billion US dollars for Harvard University alone.
A similar 66% of respondents said they did not believe the President should control important cultural institutions such as the nation’s museums and theatres. Last month, Trump ordered the Smithsonian Institution – the extensive museum and research complex that is a major showcase of US history and culture – to eliminate “inappropriate” ideology.