Tracking Public Opinion of Trump's Washington

Morning Consult is tracking what voters across the country think about how President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are governing the United States ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Each week, we’ll update this page with fresh and timely data on all of the major questions facing Washington, including views about the people in charge, the issues dominating the conversation and what is actually breaking through to the electorate.
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Key Takeaways
Trump’s approval ratings bounce back: Trump’s approval ratings ticked back up despite a relatively turbulent week for his administration that featured fresh threats of tariffs and infighting over the Justice Department’s handling of disclosures regarding the Jeffrey Epstein case. Our latest survey shows 47% of voters approve of his job performance, up 2 percentage points from last week, and 50% disapprove, a 2-point decrease over that time frame. Among Republicans, 89% approve of Trump’s job performance, up from 85% last week.
Rising confidence in Trump’s handling of the economy: Trump garnered his best approval ratings on the economy and trade since early June. Voters are equally likely to approve and disapprove of his economic performance (at 46%), while they’re more likely than not to back his handling of trade, 46% to 44%. (Republicans in Congress hold similar advantages over Democrats when voters are asked whom they trust to handle each issue.)
Improving economic buzz: Voters were 13 points more likely to hear something negative than positive about the economy, but that’s the most favorable margin we’ve measured since mid-May. Over half of voters (57%) said they’d heard at least something about Trump delaying the imposition of so-called reciprocal tariffs until Aug. 1, though more heard the same about the news that he’ll impose tariffs ranging from 20% to 50% on goods imported from more than 20 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and South America.
Foreign aid cuts fall further down voters’ priority list: As Republicans in Congress look to advance Trump’s rescissions package to claw back $9.4 billion of spending meant for the HIV/AIDS prevention program PEPFAR and public broadcasting entities such as PBS and NPR, fewer voters than ever (29%) say he should make cutting foreign aid a “top priority.” Even fewer (25%) similarly elevate a reduction in the size and scope of government, matching record lows.
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People
Trump's approval ratings
- 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.
- At a similar point in Trump’s first term, 44% of voters approved and 51% disapproved of his job performance, leaving his net approval rating better off today than it was at the same time in 2017.
Politicians' popularity
- 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 good numbers at home in New York.
Policy
Voters’ priorities for the Trump administration
- 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.
- As Trump works to reach foreign trade deals, just 23% say he should make the imposition of tariffs a “top priority.” At the same time, 47% think he is making tariffs a top priority, in line with the average over his term.
Trump’s performance on the issues
- The president receives his best ratings on national security (51%) and immigration (50%).
- Voters are divided over Trump’s handling of the economy, while he gets his worst marks on health care, abortion and LGBTQ rights.
Congressional trust on the issues
- Republicans hold sizable advantages over Democrats on trust to handle just two issues: immigration and national security.
- Voters are significantly more likely to trust Democrats to handle LGBTQ+ rights, abortion, Medicare and Social Security and health care.
- Voters are closely divided over whom they trust to handle energy, taxes, the economy, trade, foreign policy and the national debt.
News
The buzz on the politicians
- Voters are 17 points more likely to say they’ve heard something negative about Trump than positive, (48% to 32%), up from a second-term low of 24 points reached last month.
- Though Republicans enjoyed a narrow buzz advantage over 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.
The buzz on the issues
- Voters are 13 points more likely to hear something negative than positive about the economy, up from a 32-point buzz deficit reached at the height of Trump’s trade war in late April.
- 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.
What voters are hearing about
- Four in 5 voters said they had seen, read or heard “some” or “a lot” about the deadly flooding along the Guadalupe River in Texas, including 59% who said they’d heard “a lot.” That’s in line with the salience of the other biggest news stories of the year so far, including the Palisades and Eaton wildfires in the Los Angeles metro area and the death of Pope Francis.
- Less than a quarter of voters (22%) said they’d heard a lot about the rise in U.S. measles cases to their highest level in 33 years. That’s less than the 24% who said the same of news that the Justice Department found no evidence of a client list or blackmail scheme involving Jeffrey Epstein and prominent people, but more than the 17% who said they’d heard a lot about the Trump administration resuming the transfer of weapons to Ukraine after reports that the Pentagon was withholding a shipment.
Source of this data
Methodology
Morning Consult’s latest reported results reflect data gathered July 11-13, 2025, among a nationally representative sample of 2,201 registered U.S. voters, with a margin of error of +/-2 percentage points.
The survey is conducted online. Respondents are collected via quota sampling based on age, gender, education and voter registration status. This weekly sample is weighted to approximate a target sample of registered voters based on age, gender, education, race and ethnicity, marital status, parental status, home ownership, geographic region and 2024 presidential vote choice. Morning Consult weighting targets are obtained using high-quality, up-to-date gold-standard government sources – including the Current Population Survey (CPS) and American Community Survey (ACS).
About Morning Consult
Morning Consult is a global decision intelligence company changing how modern leaders make smarter, faster, better decisions. The company pairs its proprietary high-frequency data with applied artificial intelligence to better inform decisions on what people think and how they will act. Learn more at morningconsult.com.
Email [email protected] to speak with a member of the Morning Consult team.
Eli Yokley is Morning Consult’s U.S. politics analyst. Eli joined Morning Consult in 2016 from Roll Call, where he reported on House and Senate campaigns after five years of covering state-level politics in the Show Me State while studying at the University of Missouri in Columbia, including contributions to The New York Times, Politico and The Daily Beast. Follow him on Twitter @eyokley. Interested in connecting with Eli to discuss his analysis or for a media engagement or speaking opportunity? Email [email protected].
Cameron Easley is Morning Consult’s head of U.S. Political Analysis. He has led Morning Consult's coverage of U.S. politics and elections since 2016, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Politico, Axios, FiveThirtyEight and on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC. Cameron joined Morning Consult from Roll Call, where he was managing editor. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Follow him on Twitter @cameron_easley. Interested in connecting with Cameron to discuss his analysis or for a media engagement or speaking opportunity? Email [email protected].