Donald Trump was hit with more dismal news on Thursday morning, as an Associated Press survey found that over half of adults now consider him to be a "poor or terrible president."
Trump has weathered a growing storm of voter frustration over the past few months, with his failure to address economic issues like affordability being the heaviest weight on his presidency, dragging his approval rating down to historic lows. Aggressive ICE crackdowns in major cities have also threatened to permanently erode his support on immigration issues, which have typically been his strongest.
On Thursday, the AP, in partnership with the University of Chicago's NORC research firm, released the findings of a poll conducted during a four-day period earlier this month. According to the responses from 1,260 American adults, the survey concluded that over half of the country holds a dim view of Trump's leadership in his second term, while a growing number believe that he has the wrong policy priorities.
In this latest survey from the AP and NORC, 40 percent said that Trump was a "terrible" president, the most common response by a significant margin. Additionally, 12 percent called him a "poor" president, bringing the total of respondents with a negative outlook to 52 percent. This is the same total outcome for those responses the AP and NORC received when they conducted the same poll back in April, though with a one percentage point shift from "poor" to "terrible" overall. This is also slightly up from the 49 percent received when the poll was conducted in January 2021, just after Trump left office.
"The public’s assessment of Trump’s performance in office is remarkably steady," AP-NORC's report explained.
Elsewhere, the survey found that the number of respondents who dislike Trump's policy pursuits has grown slightly between polls. In April, just after the announcement of his "Liberation Day" tariffs, 44 percent said the president was "mostly focusing on the wrong priorities." In January, as a massive ICE surge grips Minneapolis and Trump continues to threaten to annex Greenland by force, 47 percent now say that he has the wrong priorities.
During an address to the House of Representatives earlier this month, Trump expressed frustration with his poor reception from voters, while standing by his policies.
"I wish you could explain to me what the hell's going on with the mind of the public," Trump said. "Because we have the right policy."