According to polling averages compiled by The New York Times, Donald Trump’s public support is now at its lowest point of the president’s second term. Making matters worse for the Republican incumbent, his standing on specific issues makes his political troubles appear worse.
The public, for example, does not appear to be on board with his trade tariffs. What’s more, Trump’s far-right domestic policy megabill was woefully unpopular. Even the preemptive military strikes the president ordered on Iranian nuclear sites did not enjoy Americans’ backing.
Is it any wonder why Trump has an unnerving habit of making up approval ratings for himself?
But as much as the Republican is struggling to impress his constituents, at least he can count on support for his immigration agenda, right? It’s consistently been his strongest issue, right?
Not anymore. What might’ve been a political winner for the White House months ago has become yet another political problem for the administration. From the latest Gallup report on its latest national poll:
Perhaps because of Americans’ opposition to immigration policies that Trump has enacted to remove undocumented immigrants from the U.S., their evaluation of his work on immigration is mostly negative. Thirty-five percent approve of his handling of the issue, including 21% strongly approving, while 62% disapprove, including 45% strongly.
What’s more, while Gallup found a year ago that a 55% majority of Americans supported less immigration to the United States, that number has dropped to just 30% now. What’s more, the same poll found 79% of U.S. adults say immigration is a good thing for the country — the highest support Gallup has ever found.
To be sure, while it’s generally wise not to read too much into any individual poll, other national surveys from prominent opinion research outlets have shown similar results. Some of this might be chalked up to thermostatic politics, but there’s also a larger context to keep in mind. As The New York Times noted, “Illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border, which began dropping last year under President Biden, are now at their lowest level in decades, and major cities like New York are no longer struggling to care for large numbers of migrants. At the same time, people in many communities — large and small, urban and rural — are seeing immigrant relatives, friends and neighbors taken away by federal agents.” The political implications of this are important in a variety of ways. Indeed, Trump and his team are poised to take their mass deportation agenda to new heights — or depths, depending on one’s perspective — with more raids, crackdowns, arrests, camps and legally dubious flights to third-party countries. This apparently isn’t what the American mainstream wants to see, which might lead some in the GOP at least to consider a less radical course. But then there’s the other party: Democrats have spent much of the post-2024 election period expressing a degree of fear when it comes to immigration, perceiving it as one of Trump’s few political strengths. The latest data suggests those assumptions are due for a reassessment.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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