68% of Americans say Trump has the wrong priorities

NEW YORK – Poll after poll shows that an increasing number of Americans are concerned that US President Donald Trump is not paying enough attention to the country’s most important problems, a sober backdrop to his

State of the Union address

on the night of Feb 24.

A CNN poll, released on Feb 23, finds that the percentage of Americans who say that the President is focused on the wrong things went up to almost 70 per cent from 55 per cent in February 2025.

Large majorities of young voters, independents and non-white voters – key constituencies that helped re-elect Mr Trump – say that the President is not focused on the country’s most important issues.

While 47 per cent of Americans approve of Mr Trump’s handling of the US-Mexico border, only 40 per cent approve of his other immigration policies, according to a poll conducted last week by ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos. That is a 10 percentage point drop since he took office.

And only 34 per cent of Americans approve of Mr Trump’s handling of tariffs, even as he moves to find ways around the

Supreme Court ruling on

Feb 20

that struck many of them down.

Voters are most discontent with his handling of inflation, with only 32 per cent of Americans in favour of it. That percentage is in line with Mr Joe Biden’s approval numbers on inflation when he was president. NYTIMES