Trump gets middling grades on Americans’ top issues, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds
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Just 32 per cent of Americans approved of the job President Donald Trump was doing on inflation.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON – Americans give President Donald Trump middling marks on his handling of the economy and efforts to shrink the government and are unimpressed by some of the early fights he has picked, such as proposals to take over Gaza, a Reuters/Ipsos poll shows.
The poll, conducted from Feb 13 to 18, asked more than 4,000 US adults nationwide whether they supported a range of positions staked out by Mr Trump and how much the issues would motivate them to vote in the future. The results point to Mr Trump putting considerable effort into policies that many Americans do not like, or do not consider very important.
A wave of frustration over prolonged inflation helped power him to victory in November 2024, and a majority of respondents – 58 per cent – said inflation would be a major factor in deciding their vote in future elections. But just 32 per cent approved of the job he was doing on inflation.
Views of the economy by households deteriorated in February to the lowest level in over a year, according to a widely followed survey by the University of Michigan.
Just 25 per cent of respondents – and only half of Republicans – said they supported Mr Trump’s idea of having the US government take over Gaza and resettle Palestinians elsewhere
“I thought that was a moronic idea because it’s infeasible,” said Mr Willard Moore, a Republican lawyer in New York City who participated in the poll, referring to the Gaza proposal. “If you did it, it would cost a lot of money, and at the end what would you have, some sort of resort? Like, what good is that for anyone?”
A notable portion of Mr Trump’s 2024 voters broke with some of the President’s early actions and ideas. About a third of Trump voters opposed the proposal to end birthright citizenship and one in five opposed his administration’s move to end diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Americans do consider Mr Trump’s push to downsize government important, but are divided mostly along party lines on whether they support it. Sixty per cent of respondents said the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) task force for cutting federal spending, which is led by Mr Elon Musk, would influence their vote in the next federal election in 2026, when Democrats will seek to win back control of Congress. But only 42 per cent of the country support the endeavour and 53 per cent oppose it.
“He’s just rushing a little bit. I think the whole thing with the Doge is being rushed a little bit,” said Mr Gerald Dunn, a Republican 66-year-old martial arts instructor from Staatsburg, in New York State’s Hudson Valley. “I like what he is doing but I think a lot of what he says is just BS. When he starts talking about annexing Greenland and annexing Canada, you know that’s just smoke.”
Education worry
Mr Trump’s call to abolish the Department of Education
“I have a child who is on the spectrum, and I have the luxury to provide for her to go to school for children who have autism. If that was taken away, I wouldn’t know what I would do,” said Ms Mikeriah Perry, a 25-year-old from Raleigh, North Carolina, who said she leans Democratic. “I wouldn’t have the proper resources to assist my child to be the best person they can be when it is time for them to go to the general public schools.”
Mr Musk’s stated goal of cutting costs, however, is wildly popular among Mr Trump’s hardline supporters – those in the survey who said they strongly identify with the President’s Make America Great Again, or Maga, movement. Ninety-four per cent of Maga followers back the Musk-led effort and 78 per cent said it would be “very motivating” or “motivating” for them in future elections.
Mr Musk’s effort so far has pared hundreds of relatively small contracts it says have saved US taxpayers US$8.5 billion (S$11.3 billion), a fraction of the annual federal budget.
The same share of core Maga voters consider increasing the deportation of illegal immigrants to be a big motivator for voting. It is an issue that was at the centre of Mr Trump’s presidential campaign in 2024. Across all respondents in the Reuters/Ipsos poll, just over half – 55 per cent – supported increasing deportations, compared with 41 per cent who were opposed. But Mr Trump’s performance on immigration was approved by less than half of respondents – 47 per cent.
He also got mixed marks on his proposed tariffs, particularly on Canada. Fifty-nine per cent of respondents, including a quarter of Republicans, rejected this idea.
“I struggle with things like picking a fight with Canada. Why are we picking a fight with Canada?” said Mr Todd Wellman, a 49-year-old Republican from Indianapolis, who said he wrote in now Vice-President J.D. Vance as his choice for president in November.
Regardless of his doubts about Mr Trump, Mr Wellman said he preferred him to Democratic predecessor Joe Biden and added of Mr Trump: “I support the direction in which he’s trying to take us, but I don’t always support his methods or path in getting us there.”
The poll surveyed 4,145 US adults nationwide and had a margin of error of 2 percentage points. REUTERS
