Trump approval rating drops to 37 percent: Pew poll

President Trump’s approval rating is slipping, with more than two-thirds of Americans saying they disapprove of how the president is handling his job, according to a new Pew Research Center poll.

The poll, released Thursday, found that Trump’s approval rating fell 3 percentage points from last fall and now stands at 37 percent. Trump’s support among Republicans remains high at 73 percent approval, though that figure is down slightly from a poll conducted last September.

Just 25 percent of Republicans and 94 percent of Democrats said they disapprove of Trump’s job performance, while only 5 percent of Democrats expressed approval.

Half of Americans in the survey said the administration’s actions since taking office last year have been worse than they expected, compared with 21 percent who said his actions have been better. About 1 in 4 people said the administration’s actions matched their expectations.

Fewer American respondents, 27 percent, also said they support all or most of Trump’s policies, down from 35 percent when he returned to office last year, a trend researchers noted was largely driven by Republicans.

Many of those surveyed also expressed a lack of confidence in Trump on several metrics, including his leadership skills, mental fitness and physical fitness.

Confidence in Trump’s respect for U.S. democratic values, ability to pick good advisers, and act ethically in office was also lower than last year.

A decline in Republican confidence contributed to an 8 point drop in the overall confidence in Trump’s ethics compared with February 2025. More than half of Republicans, 55 percent, said then that they were extremely or very confident that Trump acted ethically at the start of his second term, compared with 42 percent now.

While overall confidence in Trump’s ethics in office was already relatively low last February, at 29 percent, it has declined 8 percentage points since.

Trump’s approval rating, especially among independent voters, has been waning in recent weeks as his administration faces widespread pushback over its handling of immigration enforcement.

The Pew poll was already in progress when a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis Saturday morning, the second fatal shooting involving federal law enforcement officers this month.

Democrats have criticized the administration for its response to the killings and its deportation tactics. Senators on Thursday blocked a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security because it did not do enough to rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement, inching the country closer to a partial government shutdown.

The poll found strong support among Democrats for their congressional leadership to push back against Trump, with 82 percent saying their leaders should stand up to the president even if it makes addressing “critical problems” more difficult.

The survey was conducted Jan. 20-26 among 8,512 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of 1.4 percentage points.

Updated at 9:33 p.m. EST