President Trump’s approval rating has slipped slightly from when he took office in January among economic concerns, including over him moving to impose tariffs on the U.S.’s main trading partners and floating others, according to a new survey that was released on Wednesday.
The new Reuters/Ipsos poll found that Trump’s approval rating was at 44 percent, one percentage point down from the previous iteration of the survey conducted Jan. 24-26, when it stood at 45 percent.
The share of respondents who disapprove of his second White House term has gone up to 51 percent, a double-digit increase from Jan. 20-21, just after Trump took office. At that time, 41 percent held the same view, while 47 percent approved of the job he was doing, according to the survey.
Americans have remained supportive of Trump’s immigration proposals, according to the latest survey, which include slashing the number of crossings at the southern border and conducting mass deportations. Some 47 percent of respondents are in favor of his policies on the issue.
Meanwhile, the share of respondents who see the country going in the wrong direction regarding the economy has gone up to 53 percent, according to the new poll, a 10-point increase from the 43 percent who said the same in the Jan. 24-26 version of the survey.
Despite a smaller percentage of U.S. adults approving Trump’s handling of the economy, the 39 percent support he received on that front in the latest poll is still higher than his predecessor former President Biden’s, whose approval rating on the economy was at 34 percent toward the end of his single term.
Trump’s proposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada, which the president postponed until March, received approval from 41 percent of respondents, according to the poll. Around 54 percent are opposed.
Tariffs on goods coming in from China had stronger support, with 49 percent being in favor while 47 percent said the opposite, according to the poll.
Trump said during a Tuesday interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity that inflation “is back” and the increase had “nothing to do” with his return to the Oval Office, placing blame on the previous administration and its spending.
Prices of homes, gasoline, rent and groceries went up last month. The consumer price index ticked up by 3 percent in January compared to a year ago, according to the Labor Department.
The poll found that 32 percent of U.S. adults approved of the president’s handling of inflation.
The survey was conducted from Feb. 13-18 among 4,145 U.S. adults. The margin of error was 2 percentage points.
