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Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News, News
Niamh Shackleton
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News, News
Donald Trump's approval rating has plummeted in the wake of the president's controversial new policies.
Since becoming president for a second time back in January, Trump has brought in a series of policies that's left a sour taste in a lot of people's mouths.
From banning trans women from competing in female sports and serving in the military, to allowing Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to cut thousands of federal jobs, the new POTUS has had an undeniably cut-throat approach to handling America's affairs.
While he has insisted that such changes are to 'Make America Great Again' (his infamous campaign slogan), not everyone has approved of his changes. And, as expected, Trump's approval ratings have dropped as a result.
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Newly released figures from the Pew Research Center have found that only 40 percent of respondents approve of Trump's job performance so far, which is down 7 percent in comparison to February's data.
One of the biggest things Americans disapprove of? Yep, you guessed it —Trump's tariff hikes.
Of the US adults who were surveyed between April 7 to 13, 59 percent said they did not agree with the Trump administration's tariff increases.
More than half also disagree with the federal cuts that have been made on departments such as Education, Veterans Affairs, and Internal Revenue Service.
Another poll conducted by Reuters and Ipsos also found Trump's approval ratings have plummeted.
Of their six-day poll, only 42 percent of participants said they approved of his performance as POTUS.
This was down only a percentage compared to a similar poll conducted three weeks prior.
However, Reuters says that the new figures mark lowest approval level Trump's had since his return to the White House.
A large majority of respondents of this particular poll (57 percent, to be precise) were unhappy with Trump's decision to withhold universities' funding — something which has sparked Harvard to file a lawsuit against the administration as they believe withholding the money is unlawful, BBC News reported.
Harvard alone has had $2 billion worth of federal funds frozen.
Alan M Garber, the university's president, said in a statement earlier this week: "The consequences of the government's overreach will be severe and long-lasting."
Elsewhere, the suit expressed concerns about the devastating impact the frozen funding will have on key research that's conducted at Harvard.
"In recent weeks, the federal government has launched a broad attack on the critical funding partnerships that make this invaluable research possible," the lawsuit stated.
Garber said that studies on pediatric cancer, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease will be affected in particular.