People

• Trump began his second term by matching a record-high 52% approval from March 2017. But voters soured on his job performance during the most disruptive part of his trade war, and he’s yet to return to a net positive approval rating.
• Even so, at a similar point in Trump’s first term, 42% of voters approved and 51% disapproved of his job performance, leaving his net approval rating slightly better now than it was around this time eight years ago.

• Trump’s favorability ratings remain underwater, which has been the case more often than not since he took office.
• Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) still face relatively low awareness from the electorate, though awareness about the top House Democrat improved a bit following his pushback against Trump’s legislative agenda.
• Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the most high-profile congressional  leader, is also the most unpopular one, though he’s maintained decent numbers at home in New York.

Policy

• Voters are most likely to want Trump to focus on lowering prices for goods and services, and specifically health care affordability, following a campaign that was dominated by voters’ concerns about inflation.

• In terms of his handling of specific policy areas, the president receives his best approval ratings on immigration (49%) and national security (48%).
• His highest disapproval rating from voters comes on the economy (50%).

• Republicans hold advantages over Democrats on trust to handle immigration and national security.
• Voters are more likely to trust Democrats to handle Medicare and Social Security, LGBTQ+ rights, abortion and health care.
• Voters are closely divided over whom they trust to handle the economy, taxes, trade, the national debt, energy and foreign policy.

News

• Voters are 19 points more likely to say they’ve heard something negative about Trump than positive.
• Though Republicans in Congress enjoyed a narrow buzz advantage over congressional Democrats between the November elections and the opening months of the second Trump presidency, the inverse has been true more often than not since late March.

• Voters are 23 points more likely to have heard something negative than positive about the economy, marking the worst net buzz rating since mid-May.
• As was the case throughout much of the 2024 campaign, immigration has been one of the most salient issues voters are hearing about in the news, with roughly 7 in 10 saying they'd heard something recently about it in our latest survey.

• A third of voters said they’ve recently seen, read or heard “a lot” about the One Big Beautiful Bill Act as Republicans work to rebrand their signature legislative achievement as a break for working families.
• Just 2 in 5 voters said they’ve heard at least something about negotiations over government funding ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline to avoid a federal government shutdown, only slightly higher than the 37% who said the same about the scheduled expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act premium subsidies at the end of 2025.