Trump approval rating holds steady at 44%, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump’s approval rating held steady over the past week, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Feb 25 that found 44 per cent of respondents approved of his performance over his first month in office.

The survey found that Americans’ attitudes toward Mr Trump were essentially unchanged, even as he fired tens of thousands of federal workers and upended the US approach to the Ukraine-Russia war.  

The poll found 50 per cent disapproved of the job he was doing, down from 51 per cent last week, a change well within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Public approval of Mr Trump’s job performance so far has remained higher than it was for most of his 2017 to 2021 first term in office, and higher than his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, enjoyed during his four-year term.

The poll of 1,029 US adults, conducted online from Feb 21 to 23, also found that 50 per cent of respondents supported Mr Trump’s approach to immigration, up from 47 per cent last week. Another 42 per cent said they did not support his immigration policy.

Americans’ views on other top issues were relatively unchanged. Some 41 per cent said they approved of Mr Trump’s management of the economy, and 34 per cent said they approved of the way he was handling the cost of living. 

Some 38 per cent of poll respondents said they had a favourable view of Mr Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who is serving as the point person for Mr Trump’s effort to overhaul the government, while 57 per cent said they viewed him unfavourably. REUTERS