President Trump said new import tariff rates are coming soon
During his trip to the Gulf, President Trump said his administration would be sending letters to countries informing them of new tariff rates.
Following a torrent of polls released over the last few weeks, coinciding with President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office, the few polls released this week indicate a slight uptick in support for the president.
Trump’s average approval rating is 45% as of Friday, May 16, with a 51% disapproval number, according to the New York Times’ poll aggregation service. That’s a one-point uptick week over week, with Trump ending the first week of May with a 44% approval and 51% disapproval rating.
Pollster Nate Silver’s “Silver Bulletin” newsletter has the same 45% approval and 51% disapproval aggregate Friday, while RealClearPolitics’ average is a point higher at a 46% approval and 50% disapproval ranking.
Trump began his term with a 47% approval rating, and saw his popularity dip through to his 100th day in office, when his job approval numbers reached historic lows not seen by any other president over the past several decades.
Silver, founder of the now-defunct 538 political polling site, said in his Substack Friday that more data is needed to determine if the slight uptick in approval this week is a lasting trend or not.
“Now this could just be noise driven by a dearth of new polls, or it could be a reversal of the downward trend we’ve seen since the start of Trump’s term,” he said in his “Silver Bulletin” newsletter. “We’ll have to wait for more data to find out.”
Here’s how the latest few polls measured how much Americans approve of Trump’s job performance.
Reuters/Ipsos poll
- 44% approve
- 52% disapprove
The survey, released May 13, showed 44% of respondents approved of the president’s performance, up from 42% in a prior Reuters/Ipsos survey carried out April 25-27. The poll was taken May 12-13 of 1,163 adults, and has a margin of error of ±3 points.
The survey concluded that Americans’ concerns about a recession have eased over the last few weeks, but still remain high.
Approximately 69% of respondents said they were concerned about a recession, Reuters said, down from 76% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted April 16-21. The share who said they worried about the stock market fell to 60% from 67% between the April and May surveys.
The Economist/YouGov poll
- 43% approve
- 52% disapprove
The poll was conducted May 9-12 of 1,786 adult citizens, with a ±3.3% margin of error. Since the last survey conducted the week prior, Trump’s approval jumped one point while the percentage of those who disapprove remained the same.
When asked how they approved of Trump’s job performance on education, health care, civil rights and civil liberties, 40% of respondents said they approved of how he handled each category. Nearly half approved of Trump’s approach to immigration and crime, while his lowest marks concerned the economy: with 42% approving of jobs and the economy, 38% of respondents agreeing with the president’s stance on foreign trade, and just 35% approving of his position on inflation and prices.
Morning Consult poll
- 46% approve
- 52% disapprove
Trump’s approval ratings are unchanged from last week’s poll by Morning Consult. The Republican leader continues to get solid marks from 89% of Republican voters, Morning Consult says, while 58% of independents disapprove of his job performance.
The poll was conducted May 9-11 among 2,221 registered U.S. voters, and has a margin of error of ±2 percentage points.
Kathryn Palmer is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at [email protected] and on X @KathrynPlmr.