US Politics
Majority of Americans call Trump’s first year a ‘failure’ and say he is focusing on the wrong priorities
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.
Read more
A majority of Americans believe President Donald Trump’s first year back in the White House has been a “failure” and that he has spent too much of it focusing on the wrong priorities, according to a new poll.
The latest SSRS survey for CNN makes for bleak reading for the president at the outset of a midterm election year, with 58 percent of respondents saying they consider his record back in power unsatisfactory so far.
The economy remains the primary concern for many, with 55 percent saying they believe Trump’s policies have made matters worse, compared to 32 percent arguing they had made an improvement, a damning verdict on his controversial reciprocal tariffs policy, through which he is attempting to reset the terms of trade with other nations.
.jpeg)
open image in gallery
A huge 64 percent said he has not done enough to bring down the cost of living, a key reason many people voted for him in November 2024, with even 42 percent of Republicans saying more needs to be done to lower the price of groceries and everyday goods.
Other areas in which Trump was felt to have made things worse included his attempts to play peacemaker on the world stage (47 percent disapproved), bolstering law and order in American cities (42 percent), stopping the weaponization of the Department of Justice (41 percent), and restoring free speech (41 percent).
With the public’s preference for tackling the economy so clearly emphasized, it was perhaps inevitable that a large proportion of respondents said that Trump was on the wrong track. Just 36 percent said he was pursuing the right issues, down from 45 percent a year ago.
A majority also felt he had overstepped the mark in a number of areas, with 62 percent taking exception to him attempting to change the cultural makeup of supposedly liberal institutions like the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian, 58 percent saying he had abused the power of the executive, and 57 percent said he had cut too many government programs – a rebuke to DOGE’s hacking and slashing at the federal bureaucracy.
open image in gallery
The poll also revealed a shift in perceptions regarding the president as a person, with just one in three telling SSRS/CNN they believed Trump cares about people like them, down from 40 percent in March.
Similarly, only 37 percent of those surveyed said they see him as putting the country above his own personal gain and only 32 percent saying they believe he understands the problems average Americans face – after a year he spent redecorating the Oval Office in gold, constructing a lavish ballroom and chasing peace prizes.
Fewer than half felt the 79-year-old has the stamina and sharpness to serve effectively, with concerns about his health regularly raised in the media, and just 35 percent saying they were proud to have him as president.
The poll concluded that Trump’s overall job approval was at 39 percent, with support tumbling among independents (29 percent) and in two key demographics, people aged under 35s and Latinos, who were both 41 percent in favor at the start of last year but are now at just 30 percent.
open image in gallery
Trump still has the support of almost nine Republicans in 10, according to CNN, but the failure to appeal to those outside of his existing coalition and the loss of support from groups that helped sweep him to victory against Kamala Harris will be a real concern to the president and his team.
Earlier this week, another poll from SSRS for CNN asked Americans how they felt about ICE and the president’s crackdown on undocumented migrants in general following the killing of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother-of-three, in a confrontation with immigration agents in Minneapolis on January 7.
More than half of people said they believed the agents were making cities less safe and that the fatal shooting of Good by ICE officer Jonathan Ross had been an inappropriate use of force and indicative of wider problems with how the agency conducts itself.
Perhaps most noteworthy for Trump as he looks ahead to the midterms was the finding that 52 percent of people now consider his deportation push as having gone too far, up from 45 percent last February.
