WASHINGTON – Some 47 per cent of Americans approved of Donald Trump’s presidency as he returned to the White House this week, a sign of a polarised nation following the Republican’s victory in November, a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Jan 21 found.
The two-day survey, conducted in the hours following President Trump’s inauguration on Jan 20, showed his popularity higher than it was throughout most of his 2017-2021 term.
But the poll also showed that Americans were already sour on some of his first moves. Some 58 per cent of respondents said that Mr Trump should not pardon all people convicted of crimes during the Jan 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol.
Mr Trump essentially did just that – pardoning most of the nearly 1,600 people charged with joining the siege, while ending the sentences of 14 leaders of the siege – hours into his second term in office, while the poll was being conducted.
Just 29 per cent of respondents approved of how Mr Trump was handling perceived politicisation of the justice system. Mr Trump accused his predecessor, Mr Joe Biden, of bending the scales of justice with prosecutions meant to stop Mr Trump from returning to office, charges that the Democrat has denied. He has also said he may use the justice system to seek retribution against his political rivals.
Respondents looked more warmly on Mr Trump’s approach to other issues. Some 46 per cent of respondents approved of his job handling immigration, an issue many Americans would like to see as the new administration’s top priority.
Some 58 per cent of respondents agreed with a statement that the United States should “dramatically reduce the number of migrants allowed to claim asylum at the border,” signalling apparent support for Mr Trump’s early actions in office to suspend a procedure allowing asylum applications at the US border. Mr Trump also declared illegal immigration a national emergency and took steps to restrict citizenship for children born on US soil.
Mr Trump won the 2024 election by beating Democrat Kamala Harris 312 to 226 in the US Electoral College, though he got just 49.8 per cent of the national popular vote to Ms Harris’ 48.3 per cent.
The poll results amount to something of a reset for Mr Trump, who started his first presidential term with 43 per cent approval – a figure that rose to 49 per cent by the end of January 2017 – but ended with 34 per cent approving of his performance after the Capitol siege, an attempt to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
Mr Trump’s rating was low by historical standards, said Mr Jacob Rubashkin, a political analyst at Inside Elections. US presidents typically start their term with approval ratings above 50 per cent. “Yes, it’s positive for Trump, but it’s roughly in line with what we saw in the first term – a historically low approval rating at the outset of a presidency,” Mr Rubashkin said.
Much like Mr Biden, who left office on Jan 20, Mr Trump’s popularity held below 45 per cent for most of his first term, dipping to as low as 33 per cent in December 2017. Both leaders failed to persistently win the approval of people outside their parties and in the latest survey, 91 per cent of Republicans approved of Mr Trump’s leadership and 84 per cent of Democrats rejected it.
Mr Biden started his presidency with 55 per cent approval, but the rating quickly turned downward. It bottomed out at 35 per cent on the eve of the November election, with the Democrat’s unpopularity widely seen as a boost for Mr Trump’s election campaign.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll, which was conducted online, surveyed 1,077 US adults and had a margin of error of about 4 percentage points in each direction. REUTERS
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