Trump to address nation amid sagging approval ratings

President Donald Trump is set to address a joint session of Congress Tuesday night amid sagging approval ratings, according to recent polling data, even as he maintains he has a “resounding” mandate from Americans who elected him and will likely use his prime-time speech to justify his actions so far and going forward.

A key question: If his numbers remain relatively low amid his controversial moves, how long might it be before backing from congressional Republicans starts to flag as well?

As of Monday, 538’s polling average of Trump approval indicates that 48.1% approve while 47.8% disapprove. 538’s polling average also found that 48.2% have an unfavorable opinion of Trump while 46.5% have a favorable one.

With just more than a month in office, a CNN poll out Sunday shows that 52% of respondents disapprove of Trump’s performance in office so far. Forty-eight percent approve of his performance, the poll found.

The survey — conducted from Feb. 24-28 — before the explosive argument between Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office Friday afternoon — also found that a majority of respondents said Trump has not adequately addressed the country’s most pressing concerns.

Last week, a separate Washington Post/Ipsos Poll found Trump’s approval rating at 45% with 53% of Americans disapproving. Also, 57% said the president has exceeded his authority since taking office.

The poll also found that only 34% approve of how Elon Musk is handling his role in firing federal workers as part of the Department of Government Efficiency — with 49% disapproving.

Dean Lacy, professor of government at Dartmouth College, said he anticipates Trump’s approval rating may hover around these numbers for some time.

“He’s probably going to be locked around a 50% approval rating for a while,” Lacy said. “The approval rating itself, the numbers maybe don’t indicate the depth of sentiment toward him, even though his approval rating is 50-52%. I think he has a 40-45% of the public that loves him and 40 or 45% that despises him. And that’s not going to change much, regardless of what he does. It would take a lot to shake up.”

Trump’s approval rating numbers come as Republicans have been facing pushback from constituents angry about Trump’s role in Musk’s cuts across the federal government.

Many Republicans are grappling with how to align with Trump and still appease constituents moving forward, Lacy said.

“The harder issues, the bigger issues, the tougher issues are coming up, and those are the ones that people will be deciding how to vote on in another two years,” he said.

Trump’s current job approval rating of 45% is the second lowest for presidents at this point in their term dating to Harry Truman, according to recent data from Gallup. (Truman’s first few weeks fell at a different time because he became president after the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.) The lowest was Trump himself at 40% in February 2017.

Trump has the lowest favorability rating of recent presidents at this point in their presidency. His 44% favorability — as found in a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll — is 15 percentage points lower than Biden’s in February 2021, and similar to Trump’s rating of 46% in February 2017.

Still, the Trump administration is touting the president’s accomplishments, with a recent White House press release claiming that he “has already accomplished more than most presidents do in their entire term as he makes good on his promise to usher in the New Golden Age of America.”

Yet a majority of people (52%) said that Trump has not paid enough attention to the country’s most important problems, according to the CNN poll. Forty percent said he has the right priorities; 8% were unsure.

At the Conservative Political Action Conference last month, Trump said he had a mandate from the American people following his victory in November and would work to deliver on his promises.

“The people have given us a resounding mandate for dramatic change in Washington, and we’re going to deliver it, we’re going to use it, and we’re going to make America great again by using it,” Trump said.

The economy and the cost of living — long-identified as a top voter issue during the presidential election — remain top priorities for the Trump administration, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

“I can assure the American people that the president is very much focused on bringing down the cost-of-living crisis in this country,” she said in a White House press briefing last week.

Many Americans have said that Trump is focusing on the policies “that many Americans don’t like, or don’t consider very important” — such as the economy and inflation, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll. The poll, conducted last month, found that 58% of respondents said inflation would be a major factor in deciding their vote in future elections. But just 32% approved of the job Trump was doing on inflation.

Lacy said the economy is they most important issue for many Americans, and Trump, who has promised to bring down prices, will need to address it.

“I think he has some explaining to do. I think he already started that explaining by saying, ‘we’ll go through a period of pain’ as he threatens and possibly imposes tariffs. But this pain can’t last very long, so he has to lay out what he thinks the future will look like, what his plans will be and when Americans can expect to see those prices go down and the stock market go up,” Lacy said.

The Trump administration has acknowledged the challenge with the economy, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent saying on Sunday that they are “tackling” it.

“I think President Trump said that he’ll own the economy in six or 12 months. But I can tell you that we are working to get these prices down every day,” Bessent said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “But it took four years to get us here, and we’ve had five weeks.”

Langer Research Associates’ Christine Filer contributed to this report.