Polls Show Most Voters View Trump’s First 100 Days as “Chaotic” and “Scary”

Americans don't like Trump. Trump calls pollsters "criminals"

By Chris Walker, Truthout

Donald Trump has described his first 100 days in the White House in glowing terms, claiming the past three months have been some of the “best” in the modern era of presidential administrations — but poll after poll shows that most Americans disapprove of his actions and leadership style since taking office.

In a recent interview with Time magazine about his time in the White House so far, Trump gave himself good grades on various issues while moving the goalposts on some of his campaign promises.

At various points last year, for example, Trump vowed to end the war between Russia and Ukraine on his first day in office (or before that). Those promises were made “figuratively” and “obviously…in jest,” Trump said in the interview.

“I said that as an exaggeration because to make a point, and you know, it gets, of course, by the fake news,” Trump told Time.

Trump also asserted that immigrants in the U.S. are largely “criminals” — a lie frequently peddled by him and his allies to justify their draconian immigration policies, which have included targeting residents with legal status and deporting scores of immigrants to a prison camp in El Salvador with no regard for their due process rights. (Notably, several studies show that the opposite of Trump’s claims is true — immigrants in the U.S. actually commit fewer crimes, on average, than U.S. citizens do.)

“If you were walking down the street, and if you happen to be near one of these people, they could, they would kill you, and they wouldn’t even think about it,” Trump claimed.

The president also defended his recent economic policies, which are incredibly unpopular with the American public. Trump dubiously claimed that his administration has already made “200 deals” with countries around the world because of his tariffs, despite the fact that there are only 195 countries. Although his administration imposed tariffs on around 90 countries total, the administration has announced zero deals so far — and when pressed on potential deals by the interviewer, Trump refused to elaborate.

Instead, Trump said that he’d be “finished” with the remainder of trade deals with foreign nations “over the next three to four weeks.”

The publication also asked Trump whether he was serious on annexing Greenland, taking control of the Panama Canal, and making Canada the 51st U.S. state. When asked if he was trolling on that last point, Trump responded, “No, I am not.”

Examining his presidency in full, Trump called his second term a “very successful presidency in 100 days.”

“We’ve had people writing it was the best first month and best second month, and really the best third month,” Trump said.

Multiple polls demonstrate that the American people do not agree with Trump’s rosy assessment of his presidency so far.

An Economist/YouGov poll published last Wednesday, for example, shows that while a plurality of voters had a positive view of Trump at the start of his second presidential term, most now view him in a negative light.

Following his first week as president earlier this year, Trump had a 49 percent approval rating, with 43 percent disapproving of his actions during his first 100 days in office — a +6 net approval rating overall. In its most recent poll, however, only 41 percent of voters said they view him positively, while 54 percent gave him a negative rating, a -13 point net rating.

Compared to other presidents YouGov has surveyed on during their first 100 days in office, Trump’s performance is viewed by most as exceedingly subpar — former President Joe Biden, for example, had a net average of +11.2 points around the 100-day mark, while Obama had a +6.0 average at that time in his presidency. His current 100-day rating is also lower than his rating in 2017, when he had a -8.3 average approval in the polls.

Other polls surveying voters over his performance this term have yielded similar — and sometimes worse — results.

An Associated Press/NORC poll, for example, found that only 39 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s job performance so far, with 59 percent disapproving. That same poll found that 52 percent of voters would describe Trump as a “poor” or “terrible” president, with only 31 percent rating him as “great” or “good.”

An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll also gave Trump bad marks from voters, finding that 39 percent approve of how he’s performed in his first 100 days while 55 percent disapprove — the lowest net rating in polling on the question, for any president, in the past 80 years.

Even a Fox News poll on his first 100 days back in the White House showed bad news for Trump, finding that the president had a net -11-point approval rating. (In response to this poll, Trump demanded that the network fire its pollsters.)

A recent New York Times/Siena College poll, meanwhile, asked respondents how they would describe Trump’s second term so far. Only 42 percent used the positive word “exciting” to describe his presidency, while 59 percent called it “scary,” and 66 percent said it was “chaotic.”

That poll also provided insight into why Trump’s approval rating is so low: Net polling numbers on every major issue it surveyed respondents on were negative, with Trump receiving a net -4-point approval on immigration, a -12-point rating on the economy and a -11 point rating on foreign trade, for example.

That poll also found that voters wanted more limits placed on presidents in general, noting that:

• 61 percent said they wanted Congress to approve presidential tariffs before he imposed them;
• 54 percent said that presidents shouldn’t be allowed to unilaterally end popular federal programs that have been passed as law by Congress; and
• 76 percent said presidents shouldn’t be able to ignore orders from the Supreme Court.

Indeed, since January, Trump has undermined civil rights, weakened U.S. democratic norms, and implemented legally dubious policies that harm the livelihoods of working class Americans — all actions that have likely directly contributed to the public’s shifting views of the president.

Several political pundits have weighed in on Trump’s performance over his first 100 days, giving him negative grades.

“There has never been a president who has botched the first 100 days of his presidency more than Donald Trump has,” MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said.

Historian Kevin Kruse, referencing the crosstabs in the New York Times/Siena College poll, noted that Trump has also lost support from much of his own base, as only 68 percent of GOP voters gave the president approving marks.

“If you’ve already lost a third of your own party before hitting the 100 Days mark, that is not good but also, quite clearly, not expected,” Kruse said.

“For most presidents, the first 100 days are the high point,” Political Wire’s Taegan Goddard recognized in an analysis of Trump’s presidency so far. “But Trump has already burned through much of the goodwill he had left — and history suggests it only gets harder from here.”

“An unpopular president has a much harder time wielding power,” Goddard added. “Resistance grows when he looks weak. That’s good news for anyone worried about the future of American democracy.”