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Donald Trump is reaching new levels of unpopularity and weakness. An avalanche of polls out this week found his overall approval rating hitting all-time lows and his support among Republicans hitting an all-time low as he faces strong majority disapproval on the key issues that matter most to Americans. His overreach, incompetence, and failures are catching up to him.
Before we dive into the data, some context. I’m an independent journalist who has been covering Trump for over a decade now. I’ve made appearances on MS NOW and CNN, and my work has been cited in The New York Times and The Washington Post. I documented every day of Trump’s first term and was among the first to cover Project 2025 back in 2023. Now, I run a best-selling Substack publication called Ahmed Baba News.
This has to be the absolute worst week of polls that I have ever seen for Donald Trump. 4 polls this week found Trump’s approval rating either reaching new lows or matching all-time lows.
The lowest low comes from a Quinnipiac University poll out on Wednesday that found Trump’s approval at a dismal 32% - an all-time low for that poll.
An AP-NORC poll out on Thursday found Trump’s approval at 33%, down from 37% the previous month. This is the lowest rating on record for this poll since the start of Trump’s second term. The sharpest decline in support was found among Republicans, with a 10-point drop. More on his declining GOP support in a bit.
An Economist/YouGov poll released on Tuesday found Trump with 34% approval, marking Trump’s lowest approval YouGov has found in Trump’s second term, and matching his all-time low. They also found a record disapproval of 62% and a net approval of -28 points.
A CNN/SSRS poll released on Wednesday also found Trump’s approval rating at just 34%, which matches Trump’s all-time low in the aftermath of January 6. Yes, Trump is just as unpopular as he was in the aftermath of inciting an insurrection.
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Now, this CNN poll is where things get uniquely dire for Trump. Because this poll also found that just 78 percent of Republicans approve of Trump, a new all-time low in this poll. It also found that just 19% of Republicans say they’re enthusiastic about the rest of his second term, down from 38% last spring.
The Quinnipiac University poll we talked about earlier had similar findings, with Trump’s approval among Republicans at only 76%, which is a 9-point drop from the previous month.
You might be thinking, approval in the 70s among Republicans is still high. What matters here is the contrast, because he has typically maintained support levels among Republicans in the high 80s and 90s. So this is evidence of Trump’s base cracking.
And we know why. CNN’s poll found that 65% of Americans say Trump’s policies have “worsened the economic conditions in the country,” 67% say Trump’s military decisions in Iran have hurt the US, and 73% of Americans say that Trump hasn’t paid enough attention to the country’s most important problems.
A breakdown of polling on Trump’s handling of key issues gives even more detail. Quinnipiac found that Trump’s disapproval on immigration is at 57%, on trade it’s 58%, on the economy it’s 62%, on foreign policy it’s 62%, and on Iran it’s 66%. These are stark swings, especially on immigration and the economy, issues Trump used to be strong on.
All of this comes as Democrats lead in the generic ballot by an average of about 6-7 points, with some polls, like the latest Emerson poll, showing that lead as high as 11 points.
I always say you can never rely too much on one poll, but you have to trust the trends. Well, the trends here are pretty clear.
The story of this presidency isn’t just about a wannabe authoritarian abusing his power, betraying his campaign promises, waging fruitless wars, and raising prices on Americans while he enriches himself. It’s also about the backlash and the American people standing up to reject him.
I charted the full descent of Trump’s second term in a longer video last month. You can check that out here.
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And I hope you consider becoming a free or paid subscriber to Ahmed Baba News. With right-wing consolidation of mainstream media accelerating, independent media is more important than ever. Thank you for watching. See you around.
