Trump's approval hits new low after "Liberation Day" tariffs
His average economic approval also hits a new low (-13), and his tariffs are underwater by 30 points
This is a quick post to provide a single location to revisit Donald Trump’s approval rating as we get new polling in the wake of his “Liberation Day” tariff announcement. This post and the graphics within will be updated. As of April 14, 2025, at 8:54 p.m. ET, this page is no longer being updated. Go here for the latest Trump approval average.
As of today, 12 pollsters have published 13 new polls of Trump’s approval rating that were conducted entirely after the tariff announcement on April 2 (see table below). In both of these polls, Trump’s approval has dipped compared to the pollsters’ previous surveys. The average change in Trump’s net approval — the difference between the percentage of the country that approves of him minus the percentage that disapproves — is -6.0 across these surveys.
From these polls, there are a couple of additional data points worth highlighting:
Navigator Research: Trump’s economic approval now tied for worst-ever rating. In the write-up of their new poll, Navigator Research shows that Trump’s economic approval has declined precipitously since taking office again. While he was at +1 on net in January, he is now at -13. That is even worse than his overall approval rating, and tied for the lowest ever in Navigator polling. Navigator also finds that the share of Americans who say the economy is “getting worse” is now higher than it was before Trump won the election in November 2024, and that 58 percent of Americans disapprove of his tariffs, while only 30% approve.
Morning Consult: “Trump’s approval rating has slumped to 46%, the lowest point of his second term so far.” MC also writes that voters are seeing a lot of negative economic news: “Voters were 31 points more likely to report hearing something negative than positive about the economy (51% to 21%) last week, reaching its worst point since May 2023. Similarly, the kind of news voters reported hearing about trade declined alongside a surge in negative attention on Trump, himself.”
The new YouGov/Economist poll finds Trump’s approval among young voters has fallen from +5 at the start of his term to -29 now, putting Trump on-par with Joe Biden’s low ratings with the group at the end of his term.
New polls from right-leaning pollsters Quantus Insights and RMG Research also find Trump losing ground, by 6 points on average. They are better in nominal terms than other post-Liberation Day polls, so pull Trump’s net approval up modestly by half a point.
On Sunday, April 13, a surprisingly good poll from CBS News/YouGov pushed Trump’s approval up to 45.5%, but it still showed a decline for the president relative to their previous survey in March, and it pushed up Trump’s average disapproval.
Trump’s disapproval rating passes 50% for first time in second term
Trump has hit a new low in my average of polls, which accounts for factors such as poll recency, population, partisan bias of the pollsters, and quirks from different methodological choices. Here are the big numbers:
Trump approval: 45.3%
Trump disapproval: 50.9%
The graphic below will be automatically updated in the web version of this post, so you can come back to this page as I add more data to the average and refresh the table above. But remember you can always check out the Strength In Numbers data portal for the latest polls and averages, too.
And here’s Trump in term 2 compared to Trump 1 and other 21st-century presidents:
The takeaway:
From this analyst’s point of view, Trump’s tariffs have become a clear political liability for the president, pushing his rating even lower and into the territory he occupied for most of his first term.
Trump has now lost a key advantage on economic policy that the Republican Party spent about a decade building. While the impact of the tariffs has been felt immediately in the market, the consequences of this particular blunder will be broader and felt over the long term.
Thanks to Mary Radcliffe for keeping this public database of polls up to date.
The ship, the co-captains and the crew are sinking........
Excellent post. You did something here that everyone should have done - pre and post comparisons within a single polling organization. Bravo! Glad I subscribed.