Eye-opening approval ratings reveal what Americans really think about Trump's second term

Donald Trump has had an active second-term but he doesn’t appear to be winning over the US public, according to a new poll.

It's been over a year since Trump was sworn into the White House for the second time and things have certainly been eventful.

Returning to the Oval Office, the 79-year-old quickly began making changes on just about everything, from immigration laws, global trade policy to the decor of the White House itself.

As well as this, Trump has insisted he has been taking steps to prevent wars across the world and save millions of lives.

While also threatening military action in a number of countries, including Iran, Mexico, Venezuela and perhaps most alarmingly Greenland, a NATO ally.

The POTUS has most recently faced much criticism from his European allies for his repeated insistence that the US needs to annex the Denmark-owned self-governing region.

Donald Trump has long insisted his second term as president has been one filled with successes (Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The Trump administration has argued it needs the country to ensure it does not fall into the hands of China or Russia.

When it comes to changes to immigration policy, he has also faced wide condemnation from the alleged over-bearing nature of ICE agents in communities across the country.

Some individuals have defended this however, and argued that Trump is putting his campaign promises on immigration into action.

The criticism on multiple areas of his presidency has appears to have been reflected in AP-NORC poll from January about his overall approval rating.

It found that around one four in 10 US adults approve of Trump’s performance as president so far.

This is seemingly unchanged from his approval rating from March 2025, when he retook office.

According to the poll, as of January 8, 2026, 59 percent of US adults disapprove of the way President Trump is handling his job, 40 percent do approve, however.

Regarding some of the key issues, the majority of American adults were also disapproving of how he has handled them.

The president is facing a lot of disapproval from US adults for key issues (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

Latest AP-NORC poll results on key issues

• Handling of the economy: 37 percent of people approve of Trump compared to 62 percent who disapprove
• Handling of immigration: 38 percent of people approve compared to 61 percent who disapprove
• Handling foreign policy: 37 percent of people approve compared to 61 percent who disapprove
• Handling of trade negotiations: 37 percent of people approve compared to 61 percent who disapprove

The poll also had a note regarding its margin of error. It read: “All surveys have some amount of uncertainty. We include a margin of sampling error to help capture some of that variability. Each poll has its own margin of sampling error. Subgroups, like younger or older adults, have bigger margins of error.”

UNILAD has contacted the White House for comment.