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By Anna Commander
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President Donald Trump's disapproval rating has hit a new high during his second term, a poll from The Economist and YouGov showed on Tuesday.
Why It Matters
Shifts in approval and disapproval ratings could signal broader erosion and complicate the Republican Party's midterm strategies, especially as multiple trackers show Trump significantly underwater nationally.
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What To Know
According to the poll, Trump's approval rating is 38 percent, and his disapproval rating is 59 percent. The poll was conducted from February 27 to March 2, surveyed 1,515 U.S. adults, and has a margin of error of 3.4 percent.
In a poll conducted last week, the president's approval rating was 39 percent versus a 57 percent disapproval rating. In a poll taken from February 13 to February 16, the president's approval rating was 39 percent versus a 56 percent disapproval rating.
In an email to Newsweek about this week's poll, YouGov's Allen Houston said in part: "Donald Trump hit a new low in net job approval for his second term in this week's Economist / YouGov poll. 38% of Americans strongly or somewhat approve of Trump's job performance, while 59% disapprove — a record high disapproval for this term. Trump's net approval of -21 for handling his job as president is the second lowest he has received in an Economist / YouGov Poll, after a survey in November 2017 (also -21, slightly lower than this week before rounding)."
Allen continued in part, "If Trump's net job approval remains at this level, it will be comparable to the negative poll numbers Joe Biden received in the spring and summer of 2024, before he dropped out of the presidential race."
Tuesday's poll also shows that 51 percent "strongly disapprove" of the president's job performance. "That's a record high for Trump in either of his two terms, and it is the first time in either term that more than 50% of Americans have said this," Houston said.
The latest poll from The Economist and YouGov comes amid ongoing U.S. and Israeli attacks against Iran and ahead of primary election results in North Carolina, Arkansas and Texas on Tuesday night.
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What People Are Saying
Grant Davis Reeher, a professor of political science at Syracuse University, told Newsweek on Tuesday: "One might be tempted to think that these results indicate that on the Republican side, primary candidates who have separated somewhat from the president might fare well, and on the Democratic side, candidates who are the most critical of the president also might fare well. But extrapolating from general approval ratings and other general questions to specific primary results is fraught with problems.
"Again, I see these numbers as the cumulative effect of a host of factors, concerning the lived experience of the economy, perceptions of various policies, in particular the tactics of ICE and CBP, and concerns about tariffs and other aspects of the president’s foreign policy—Iran being the most recent and the most complicated and hardest to read, as it’s still early days."
President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social in February: "Record Stock Market, and National Security, driven by our Great TARIFFS. I am predicting 100,000 on the DOW by the end of my Term. REMEMBER, TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING! I hope the United States Supreme Court is watching."
CNN Chief Data Analyst Harry Enten posted on X in February: "On jobs, Americans think Trump took a beautiful swan & turned it into an ugly duckling. His net approval on jobs is down 22 pts from last year. Down 37 with indies. 52% now rate the job market as bad! Highest % think unemployment will go up since the Great Recession."
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