Trump's approval rating drops to second-term low as support from independents craters
WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump's approval rating has dropped to 37%, according to a new Gallup poll, the lowest mark of his second term as independent voters have increasingly soured on his presidency.
The poll, taken July 7 through July 21, was conducted on the heels of Trump's July 4 signing of his "Big, Beautiful Bill" into law and as he's faced an intense backlash over his administration's refusal to release files in the government's case of disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
It marks a 10-point drop from the 47% approval rating Americans gave Trump's job performance at the beginning of his term in January. The poll, a phone survey of 1,002 Americans released July 24, has a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points.
Only 29% of independent voters said they approved of Trump's job performance, a 17-point decline from the 46% the president enjoyed among independents at the start of his second term. The 29% approval rating among independent voters is the lowest Gallup has tracked with the group in either of his two terms.
Trump has maintained strong support from Republican voters ‒ dropping just one point from 90% in January to 89% ‒ while backing from Democratic voters has slid from 6% to 2%.
Trump's approval rating slides on issues including economy
An average of recent polls from Real Clear Politics found Trump with a higher approval rating of 52%, compared to 46% of Americans who approve of his job performance.
Although Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill" legislation marked a major legislative victory for the president, a CNN poll conducted by SSRS this month found 61% of Americans opposed the megabill, which includes cuts to Medicaid and food stamps and an extension of Trump's 2017 tax cuts estimated to add $3.3 trillion to the debt over 10 years.
Trump has also lost support on his handling of most issues. Only 37% of Americans approved of his handling of the economy in July, down from 42% in Gallup's February poll. Trump's favorability rating on immigration decreased from 46% to 38%, his handling of foreign trade from 42% to 36%, his handling of foreign affairs from 44% to 41%, and his handling of the Middle East from 40% to 36%.
Trump's lowest approval marks are for his handling of the war in Ukraine, 33%, and the federal budget, 29%.
Trump's average approval rating in Gallup polls between April 20 and July 19, was 40% ‒ significantly below the 59% average for all post-World War II presidents elected from 1952 to 2020 at the same point in their first terms. Yet it was a notch above the 39% first-term second-quarter average Trump had in 2017.
The latest Gallup poll is a potential warning sign for Trump and Republicans more than one year away from the 2026 midterms, when Democrats hope to win back control of the House of Representatives and Senate.
Yet Trump has proven in the past that he has the strength political to overcome poor polling. Trump's lowest approval rating, 34%, came at the end of his first term in January 2021 after he refused to concede the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.