More Americans say Trump’s second term has been worse than expected, according to a new poll

Two months into Donald Trump’s second term, more Americans say his presidential performance has been worse (41%) rather than better (30%) than they expected, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll.

Another 22% say Trump has been “about the same” as they expected.

The new survey of 1,677 U.S. adults, which was conducted from March 20 to 24, finds the president struggling amid rising economic uncertainty to maintain the political momentum that greeted his reelection last November.

Immediately after Trump’s Nov. 5 victory, 51% of Americans told Yahoo News and YouGov that they approved of the way he had handled his first term in office, while 43% said they disapproved. But today those numbers are reversed, with more Americans disapproving (50%) than approving (44%) of the job that Trump is currently doing.

Likewise, more Americans now rate Trump unfavorably (52%) than favorably (44%) on a personal level. After the election, Trump’s favorable rating (49%) narrowly exceeded his unfavorable rating (48%).

The ‘honeymoon’ effect

Do these numbers mean Trump’s “honeymoon” is over? Possibly. A president’s popularity typically peaks in the initial phase of his presidency. But while more Americans said in November that they expected Trump to change America for the better (45%) than said they expected him to change America for the worse (33%), slightly more now think he is, in fact, doing the opposite: changing the country for the worse (43%) rather than the better (40%).

Perceptions of Trump’s relationship to democracy have shifted as well. In November, Americans who said Trump “likes to talk tough” but “won’t threaten democracy” during his second term (43%) outnumbered those who said Trump “poses a real threat to democracy" (39%). Now, however, the number of Americans who think Trump threatens democracy (47%) is significantly higher than the number who think it’s all just bluster (39%).

Why Trump’s popularity has declined

There are two main reasons for Trump’s declining popularity, according to the poll. The first is fairly simple, and likely inevitable.

Trump has dominated U.S. politics for a decade, so views of him are relatively fixed — and polarized. But after the election, at least some Democrats softened their usual opposition to the president.

In November, for example, 68% of Democrats predicted Trump would change America for the worse; today, many more (82%) say that’s what he’s actually doing. In other words, a modest number of Democrats who were willing to “give Trump a chance” late last year have reverted back to opposing the president after seeing how he spent his first months back in office.

The second reason Trump’s popularity is falling may be more self-inflicted: how he’s dealing with — or not dealing with — economic issues.

When asked to identify the most important issue facing the country, nearly half of Americans choose either the cost of living (23%) or the economy (23%). Democracy (12%), immigration (11%) and government spending (8%) trail far behind.

But when asked about the most important issue to Trump — "based on the actions he has taken so far in his second term" — just one in ten Americans pick either the cost of living (2%) or the economy (9%). Far more select immigration (37%) or government spending (25%); one in five say they aren’t sure (19%). All other issues register at 2% or lower.

Real economic worries

This massive disconnect between what’s important to Americans and what seems important to Trump comes at a time of persistent economic anxiety:

• Just 26% of Americans now rate the state of the economy as excellent or good; 70% rate it fair or poor. Right before the election, those numbers were 30% and 67%, respectively.

• 47% of Americans say the economy is getting worse; only 26% say it is getting better.

• 51% of Americans believe inflation is getting worse, roughly the same as last October.

• Only a third of Americans (34%) describe their own personal economic situation as excellent or good, while 64% say it is fair or poor. Those numbers are also unchanged since October.

• Most Americans believe the economy is in a recession today (26%) or headed toward one (26%).

• A full 87% of Americans say grocery prices are too high, while just 7% say they’re about right and a mere 1% say they’re too low. Two-thirds (66%) say grocery prices are going up.

As a result, Trump’s perceived inattention to the economy and the cost of living has damaged his standing with the public. His rating for handling the economy — 39% approve to 51% disapprove — is now lower than his overall job rating. In fact, Trump’s economic rating is lower today than it was during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, from May to June 2020 (49% approve to 45% disapprove, on average).

And Trump’s rating for handling the cost of living is lower still: 34% approve to 54% disapprove.

Tariffs aren’t helping

Meanwhile, the president’s main response to America’s economic challenges — hiking tariffs on imported goods — doesn’t appear to be helping, at least not yet.

It’s true that a plurality of Americans agree with the president that tariffs will force companies to manufacture things in America rather than elsewhere (46% agree, 29% disagree) and raise hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue for the federal government (42% agree, 33% disagree).

But Americans also agree with Trump’s critics by a wider margin that tariffs “will cause a recession" (49% agree, 23% disagree) — and most of all, that tariffs "will increase the amount I personally pay for goods and services" (68% agree, 14% disagree). They do not agree with Trump’s argument that tariffs will force other countries to treat the U.S. more fairly (36% agree, 44% disagree).

Overall, then, it’s no surprise that most Americans believe Trump’s tariffs are having more of a negative effect (51%) than a positive effect (20%) on today’s economy. That gap narrows a bit when Americans are asked to predict the tariffs’ long-term effects, but it is still more negative (44%) than positive (31%).

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The Yahoo News survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,677 U.S. adults interviewed online from March 20 to 24, 2025. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 election turnout and presidential vote, party identification and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Party identification is weighted to the estimated distribution at the time of the election (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S. adults. The margin of error is approximately 2.6%.