By Jessica Piper / Politico / Feb. 20-21, 2025
Donald Trump’s honeymoon may be wearing off.
New polls show a majority of Americans say he has overstepped his presidential authority — and hasn’t done enough to address high prices.
Two new polls from CNN/SSRS and The Washington Post/Ipsos show the GOP president’s approval rating underwater (47-52 in the CNN poll, 45-53 in the Post), a shift from polling earlier this year that found voters roughly divided on him, with some surveys even showing a positive approval rating.
Trump’s poll numbers are at an historic low for this spot in any president’s first month in modern times. SEE: Rachel Maddow’s blistering analysis of recent polls — video.
One reason for the erosion of support: a slight majority of respondents in both surveys said Trump has overstepped his presidential power in his attempts to reshape the federal government driven by tech billionaire Elon Musk. Many of Trump’s most controversial early initiatives, including a sweeping spending freeze, have been blocked in court thus far, but the new administration has still made waves with layoffs of federal workers, cuts to federal contracts and a flood of executive orders.
Those activities haven’t been popular, the new polling found. In the Post survey, for example, 58 percent of respondents opposed laying off large numbers of federal workers. And Musk, Trump’s most high-profile adviser, is not getting good marks either: Just 34 percent of respondents in the Post poll approved of Musk’s role in the federal government, while 54 percent of respondents in the CNN poll said it was bad for Trump to have given the SpaceX CEO a prominent role in his administration.
Americans also remain skeptical of Trump’s handling of an issue the public has long said is among the most important: high prices. In the CNN survey, 62 percent of respondents — including 47 percent of Republicans — said the president has not done enough to try to reduce the prices of everyday goods.
And tariffs, perhaps Trump’s signature economic issue so far, aren’t seen as a solution: 69 percent of respondents in the Post poll said tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China would make products in the U.S. more expensive.
“Despite the doom and gloom headlines from news organizations like yours, the American people actually feel great about the direction of the country,” White House deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said in a statement. “What’s to hate? We are undoing the widely unpopular agenda of the previous office holder, uprooting waste, fraud, and abuse, and chugging along on the great American Comeback.”
Trump, on Truth Social Friday morning, asserted he had “the best polling numbers I’ve ever had” while railing against Democrats.
The new polling was not all bad news for Trump. Support for him is still a few points higher than it was at this point in his first presidential term, when he entered office having lost the popular vote. And his approach on immigration has earned higher marks than his handling of the economy or efforts to shrink the federal government.
Trump is also not the only one drawing ire: Nearly three-quarters of Democrats and Democratic-leaning adults in the CNN poll said congressional Democrats weren’t doing enough to check the GOP president.
The CNN/SSRS poll surveyed 1,206 U.S. adults from Feb. 13-17 and had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points. The Washington Post/Ipsos poll surveyed 2,601 adults from Feb. 13-18 and had a margin of error of 2.1 points.
