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By Kate Plummer
Senior US News Reporter
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President Donald Trump's approval rating has remained fairly consistent since an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on January 7.
Newsweek reached out to the White House by email to comment on this story outside of normal business hours.
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Why It Matters
Good, 37, a U.S. citizen, was shot and killed by an ICE officer, later identified as Jonathan Ross, after agents asked her to exit the vehicle she was in and she attempted top drive away. The Trump administration defended the agent, with Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem claiming Good had "attempted to run a law enforcement officer over” before she was shot. But critics have condemned the killing, with the city's mayor, Jacob Frey, calling it "reckless" and there have been ongoing protests in the city in the week following her death.
Some polls show that Trump's approval rating has slightly declined since the events unfolded, but others show it has slightly improved, making it difficult to track the public response to the killing.
What To Know
Some polls showed Trump's approval rating falling slightly after the Minneapolis shooting. According to Rasmussen Reports, a pollster that has been accused of leaning toward Republican candidates, but claims to be independent, Trump had a net approval rating of -14 percentage points on January 13. This is a slight decline from January 7, the day Good was shot, when his approval rating was at -13 points.
Decision Desk HQ's national average on January 14 found that 53.7 percent of people disapproved of Trump and 42.8 percent approved of him—giving him a net approval rating of -10.9 percent points.
This is a slight drop from their January 6 national average which gave Trump a net approval rating of -10 points with 43.2 percent approving of him and 53.3 percent disapproving.
Decision Desk HQ aggregates some 735 polls to provide a daily average of Trump's approval rating.
Meanwhile, a Morning Consult poll conducted between January 9 and 12 found that Trump has a net approval rating of -8 points. 45 percent said they approved of him and 53 percent disapproved.
Their previous poll, released on January 5, found that 46 percent approved and 51 percent disapproved, so Trump had a slightly better net approval rating of -5 points.
However, another poll suggested Trump's approval rating had improved. The poll of 1,602 adults conducted by *The Economist/*YouGov, found that 40 percent of people approve of Trump and 54 percent disapprove of him, leaving him with a net approval rating of -14 points. The poll was conducted between January 9 and 12, in the days after the ICE shooting.
This is a small improvement from their previous poll, conducted between January 2 and 5, when 39 percent said they approved of Trump and 56 percent disapproved, giving him a net approval rating of -17 points.
Nonetheless, the latest The Economist/ YouGov poll also indicated there has been a public backlash to Good's killing, despite it appearing not to have affected Trump directly. The pollsters asked respondents if they thought the shooting in Minneapolis was justified or not. While 30 percent said it was, the majority—50 percent—said it was not justified. A further 47 percent said ICE was making them less safe, compared with the 34 percent who said it makes Americans more safe.
What People Are Saying
White House spokesman Davis Ingle previously told Newsweek via email: "President Trump was overwhelmingly elected by nearly 80 million Americans to deliver on his popular and common-sense agenda. The president has already made historic progress not only in America, but around the world. It is not surprising that President Trump remains the most dominant figure in American politics."
**Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in an official statement: "**ICE officers were out in enforcement action, they got stuck in the snow because of the adverse weather…They were attempting to push out their vehicle and a woman attacked them…and attempted to run them over and rammed them with her vehicle. An officer…acted quickly and defensively shot to protect himself and the people around him. My understanding is she was hit, and is deceased. These vehicle rammings are domestic acts of terrorism.”
Representative Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, wrote on X last Wednesday: "ICE’s actions today were unconscionable and reprehensible. I am beyond outraged that their reckless, callous actions led to the killing of a legal observer in Minneapolis. My heart breaks for the victim’s family, who will have to forever live with the pain caused by the Trump administration's reckless and deadly actions. This administration has shown, yet again, that it does not care about the safety of Minnesotans."
President Donald Trump said on CBS' Evening News on Tuesday about Good: "I would bet you that she, under normal circumstances, was a very solid, wonderful person, but her actions were pretty tough."
What Happens Next
Minnesota has sued the Trump administration to block the use of immigration agents in the state after the DHS deployed more agents to Minneapolis. The FBI is investigating the shooting.
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