New polls have shown that Donald Trump’s approval ratings are sliding, with even Republicans fearing the US was losing credibility on the global stage.
Donald Trump’s public approval rating has slid to its lowest level since his return to the White House, as Americans show signs of wariness over his efforts to broaden his power, the most recent Ipsos poll has found. Some 42% of respondents to the six-day poll approved of Trump’s performance as president, down from 43% three weeks earlier. It represents a five-point dip since his inauguration in January, where he enjoyed a 47% approval rate – a sign of the deep political divide tugging at the heart of the US.
While the US President’s approval rating remains higher than the ratings seen during most of his Democratic predecessor’s presidency, the results of the poll show that – on a range of issues from inflation and immigration to taxation and rule of law – more Americans now disapprove of his policies than approve of them.
On foreign policy some 59% of respondents – including a third of Republicans – said America was losing credibility on the global stage.
When it comes to immigration, his strongest area of support, 45% of respondents approved of Trump’s performance but 46% disapproved.
The poll, conducted on behalf of Reuters, had a margin of error of about 2 percentage points.
An overwhelming three-quarters of respondents said Trump should not run for a third term in office – a path Trump has said he would like to pursue, though the US Constitution bars him from doing so.
Opposition to this was also reflected by 54% of Republican respondents.
The start of Trump’s term has left his political opponents stunned as he has signed dozens of executive orders expanding his influence over both government departments and over private institutions such as universities and law firms.
Even Republicans are beginning to question Trump’s foreign policy ambitions (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Many Americans are uncomfortable with his moves to punish universities he sees as too liberal and to install himself as the board chair of the Kennedy Center, a major theatre and cultural institution in Washington.
Some 83% of the 4,306 respondents said that the US president must obey federal court rulings even if he doesn’t want to.
Trump administration officials could face criminal contempt charges for violating a federal judge’s order halting deportations of alleged members of a Venezuelan gang who had no chance to challenge their removals.
Fifty-seven percent – including one-third of Republicans – disagreed with the statement that “it’s okay for a U.S. president to withhold funding from universities if the president doesn’t agree with how the university is run.”
Trump, who has argued universities are failing to fight antisemitism on campus, has frozen vast sums of federal money budgeted for U.S. universities, including more than $2 billion for Harvard University alone.
A similar share of respondents – 66% – said they did not think the president should be in control of premier cultural institutions such as national museums and theatres.
Trump last month ordered the Smithsonian Institution, the vast museum and research complex that is a premier exhibition space for U.S. history and culture, to remove “improper” ideology.
