People

• Trump began his second term by matching a record-high 52% approval from March 2017, but voters have steadily soured on his job performance since his second inauguration.
• At a similar point in Trump’s first term, 50% of voters approved and 44% disapproved of his job performance.

• 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.) face low awareness from the electorate, though voters are more likely to view them negatively than positively.
• In a broader sense, voters have similar views on congressional Democrats and Republicans. That’s a significant change from last Congress, when Democrats tended to be more popular among the electorate.
  

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.
• Amid his and Elon Musk’s high-profile efforts with the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, just 27% of voters say that a reduction in the size and scope of the U.S. government should be a “top priority.”

• More voters than not still approve of Trump’s handling of most issues, with the president receiving his best marks on immigration (55% approval) and national security (52% approve).
• Trump faces the highest disapproval ratings (46%) on his handling of abortion, the economy, health care, trade and LGBTQ+ rights.

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

News

• Trump’s net buzz rating dipped 16 points underwater last week, setting a record low since he took office. 
• Few voters say they’ve heard much about Johnson or Thune as the two work with Trump to plot his legislative strategy. 
• News sentiment about the two parties in Congress tended to be negative in the lead-up to the inauguration, though Republicans have generally performed better by the metric.

• Voters were 25 points more likely to hear something negative than positive about the economy, tying a post-election record low set last week.
• Following Trump’s inauguration, Republican voters are increasingly likely to say that they’re hearing positive things about issues such as the immigration, national security and public safety.
• As was the case throughout much of the 2024 campaign, immigration remains the most salient issue voters are hearing about in the news, with more than 7 in 10 saying they'd heard something recently about it.

• 42% of voters said they had seen, read or heard “a lot” about new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, slightly lower than the 47% who heard the same of Trump’s tariffs on Mexico and Canada earlier this month. 
• A quarter of voters said they heard a lot about Trump refusing to rule out a recession, while 31% said the same about Musk’s reference to entitlement spending as a key target for cuts.