In office for more than a year: US President Donald Trump.Image: keystone
Trump’s poll numbers remain consistently low on the most important issues. But his own base continues to support the US president.
Feb 6, 2026, 2:55 p.mFeb 6, 2026, 3:03 p.m
Donald Trump has been in office for more than a year, during which time he has not only caused a lot of turmoil in foreign policy, but has also heated up tempers with his domestic policy.
But how do US citizens feel about the work of the US President? An overview of Trump’s latest poll numbers:
To the polls
Image: realclearpolling
General agreement
Trump’s job approval ratings are poor. The average approval from 16 different surveys shows that only 42.4 percent approve of the work of the US President. In return, 54.8 percent of US citizens are dissatisfied with Trump. In five of the 16 surveys his approval rating is even below 40 percent. And only in a survey approval is higher than rejection.
Since he took office, the picture has been clear: approval has been steadily declining and rejection is increasing. Also noticeable: His values deteriorated noticeably from January 10th, which coincides with the shooting of Renée Good by ICE on January 7th.
The comparison with Trump’s Democratic predecessors Joe Biden and Barack Obama is interesting. For Biden, the numbers look similarly bad after one year in office (2022): Only 41.3 percent were satisfied with Biden’s work at the time, while 54.2 percent rejected it. Obama also did not achieve positive results in the second year of his second term in office (42.5 percent approval and 52.9 percent disapproval). However, these values increased significantly again towards the end of his term in office.
Business
Americans have a particularly bad image of Trump’s economic policy. On average, only 40.7 percent of those surveyed see this positively, 55.9 percent negatively. In five out of 15 surveys, approval is even below 40 percent. Not a single survey on the economy has an approval rating of 50 percent.
In one Fox poll On January 28th, for example, it says: “New Year, same opinion.” The majority said the economy was in poor shape and the country was doing worse than it was a year ago. This survey also clearly shows the political gap between the two parties: Republicans don’t see the economy nearly as bad (61 percent say people are doing better than a year ago) as do Democrats (84 percent reject) and independents (71 percent reject).
Foreign policy
Ukraine, Gaza, Iran, Venezuela, Greenland: Trump has left no stone unturned when it comes to foreign policy. Here too, most US citizens reject Trump’s actions. On average, in eleven surveys, he achieved an approval rating of just 40.1 percent, while 53.5 percent viewed his work negatively. In five of these surveys he did not get above 40 percent approval.
In particular, his ambitions regarding Greenland are not well received by the population. A survey by Reuters/Ipsos In mid-January, only 17 percent were in favor of forcibly incorporating the island.
The deep divide between Republicans and Democrats is also evident again in foreign policy: While 40 percent of Republicans believe that Trump’s Greenland threats will not have a major impact on the partnership with NATO, Democrats (91 percent) and independent voters (70 percent) are very concerned about the future of the transatlantic alliance.
immigration
Trump does best on migration issues, but his numbers don’t look good here either. On average, 44.4 percent view his immigration policy positively, while 52.4 percent view it negatively. In three out of a total of 14 surveys, approval slipped below 40 percent, one survey showed 51 percent approval.
If you take a closer look at the surveys, ICE’s actions are primarily responsible for the poor numbers. Most of those surveyed (61 percent) judge, for example in a CBS poll from mid-January the migration authority’s approach was “too harsh”. In November this number was 56 percent.
But the same picture emerges here as with other topics: the gap between the Republicans and Democrats is deep. While the ICE actions have a positive approval rating among Republicans, Democrats and independent voters consistently reject them.
Conclusion
One year into his second term, general approval of Trump is low. However, his two predecessors, Joe Biden and Barack Obama, also had to struggle with this.
The political divide is noticeable on all major issues. While the Democrats practically unanimously reject Trump’s policies, the Republicans largely still support Trump.
But Trump should be particularly concerned about independent voters. The rejection of this group of voters continues to increase in both domestic and foreign policy. In a political system where elections are decided primarily by independent votes, these numbers bode ill for Trump heading into November’s midterms.