Donald Trump’s popularity has fallen somewhat as an early rush of executive orders – including renaming the Gulf of Mexico and attacking birthright citizenship – are fairly unpopular with Americans, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
The Republican president has cracked down on immigration and attempted to radically gut the government, with respondents to the three-day poll – which closed on Sunday – expressing increasing disapproval.
Overall, Reuters said, the poll showed 45% of Americans approve of Trump’s performance as president, down slightly from 47% a week before.
His disapproval rate was slightly larger at 46% – an increase from 39% the week before.
The poll had a margin of error of about 4 percentage points.
Trump’s first-term approval rating hit 49% after he began his term but fell to 34% following the January 6 insurrection.
Most Americans opposed ending the nation’s longstanding practice of granting citizenship to children born in the US even if neither parent has legal immigration status, the poll found. About 59% of respondents – including 89% of Democrats and 36% of Republicans – said they opposed ending birthright citizenship.
A federal judge last week temporarily blocked the Trump administration from making changes to birthright citizenship, but the White House has vowed to fight on.
Seventy per cent of respondents oppose renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, an action Trump ordered on his first day in office. Only 25% of respondents supported the idea, with the rest unsure.
About 59% of respondents, including 30% of Republicans, opposed Trump’s moves to end federal efforts to promote the hiring of women and members of racial minority groups. When asked specifically about Trump’s order to close all federal diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, offices, respondents were more evenly divided, with 51% opposed and 44% in favor, largely along partisan lines.
Support for expanding fossil fuel drilling – another early policy change in the new administration – was highly concentrated in Trump’s party, with 76% of Republicans backing the easing of drilling restrictions and 81% of Democrats opposing it. About 59% of respondents said they opposed the United States pulling out of the Paris climate accords.
Public views also split along partisan lines for the billionaire businessman Elon Musk, one of Trump’s most prominent allies. While 75% of Republicans in the survey said they had a favorable view of Musk, 90% of Democrats said they had an unfavorable view.
One possible source of concern for Trump’s political team could be the still overwhelming sense that rising prices remain untamed. About 50% of poll respondents said the country was on the wrong track when it came to the cost of living, compared with 25% who said it was moving in the right direction. The rest said they were not sure or did not answer the question.
There were positive indicators for Trump, as well.
About 48% of Americans polled approve of Trump’s approach on immigration, compared to 41% who disapprove. And the poll showed Trump having significant levels of support on the hiring freeze he ordered at most federal offices, with 49% of respondents backing a freeze, including 80% of Republicans and 43% of Democrats.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll, which was conducted online and nationwide over 24-26 January, surveyed 1,034 adults.
