Trump is 'really tanking his approval' — here’s why: polling research analyst
Three and one-half months into his second presidency, Donald Trump is watching his poll numbers plummet on a range of issues —from tariffs and the economy to immigration and mass deportations.
Molly Murphy, president of the liberal/progressive public research firm Impact Research, discussed Trump's approval numbers during a Tuesday, May 6 appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." And she emphasized that issues that worked well for Trump in 2024 are now major liabilities for him.
Murphy told hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, "It's really been interesting: Just in the last few weeks, Donald Trump's approval rating on immigration has slipped to underwater. And that has been a source of strength for him. It was one of his strongest issues in the 2024 presidential campaign. Coming into office, people had a lot of confidence."
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Referencing the case of Kilmar Ábrego García — a Salvadoran man wrongly deported from Maryland to a prison in El Salvador — Murphy noted that Trump "continues to make this not a conversation about immigration, but about due process and about defying the courts."
"His immigration approval rating has come down," Murphy told Scarborough and Brzezinski. "At the same time, people are not really against deporting people who are here illegally…. The way (Trump) is going about it is really tanking his overall approval on the issue itself."
Murphy noted, however, that as bad an issue as immigration has become for Trump, the economy, according to polling analysis, is even more of a liability for him.
Murphy explained, "There is not a singular issue that is a bigger weight around Donald Trump's neck right than the tariffs…. That's up to about a quarter of Republicans who are not liking the tariffs. Seventy-five percent think costs are going to go up. They think it is going to impact their family's budget, which is already a source of stress."
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Murphy continued, "People are at the max when it comes to costs right now. And generally, people don't disentangle their own circumstances from the larger economy. Right now, especially with inflation over the last few years, what they will say: If it's bad for me, it is bad for the economy.'"
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Watch the full video below or at this link.
