Trump's handling of the economy is at its lowest point in AP-NORC
polling
[December 12, 2025]
By LINLEY SANDERS and WILL WEISSERT
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s approval on the economy and
immigration have fallen substantially since March, according to a new
AP-NORC poll, the latest indication that two signature issues that got
him elected barely a year ago could be turning into liabilities as his
party begins to gear up for the 2026 midterms.
Only 31% of U.S. adults now approve of how Trump is handling the
economy, the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public
Affairs Research finds. That is down from 40% in March and marks the
lowest economic approval he’s registered in an AP-NORC poll in his first
or second term. The Republican president also has struggled to recover
from public blowback on other issues, such as his management of the
federal government, and has not seen an approval bump even after
congressional Democrats effectively capitulated to end a record-long
government shutdown last month.
Perhaps most worryingly for Trump, who's become increasingly synonymous
with his party, he's slipped on issues that were major strengths. Just a
few months ago, 53% of Americans approved of Trump's handling of crime,
but that's fallen to 43% in the new poll. There's been a similar decline
on immigration, from 49% approval in March to 38% now.
The new poll starkly illustrates how Trump has struggled to hold onto
political wins since his return to office. Even border security — an
issue on which his approval remains relatively high — has declined
slightly in recent months.
The good news for Trump is that his overall approval hasn't fallen as
steeply. The new poll found that 36% of Americans approve of the way
he's handling his job as president, which is down slightly from 42% in
March. That signals that even if some people aren't happy with elements
of his approach, they might not be ready to say he's doing a bad job as
president. And while discontent is increasing among Republicans on
certain issues, they're largely still behind him.
Declining approval on the economy, even among Republicans
Republicans are more unhappy with Trump's performance on the economy
than they were in the first few months of his term. About 7 in 10
Republicans, 69%, approve of how Trump is handling the economy in the
December poll, a decline from 78% in March.
Larry Reynolds, a 74-year-old retiree and Republican voter from
Wadsworth, Ohio, said he believes in Trump’s plan to impose import
duties on U.S. trading partners but thinks rates have spiraled too high,
creating a “vicious circle now where they aren’t really justifying the
tariffs.”
Reynolds said he also believes that inflation became a problem during
the coronavirus pandemic and that the economy won’t quickly recover,
regardless of what Trump does. “I don’t think it’ll be anything really
soon. I think it’s just going to take time,” he said.
Trump's base is still largely behind him, which was not always the case
for his predecessor, President Joe Biden, a Democrat. In the summer of
2022, only about half of Democrats approved of how Biden was handling
the economy. Shortly before he withdrew from the 2024 presidential race
two years later, that had risen to about two-thirds of Democrats.
More broadly, though, there's no sign that Americans think the economy
has improved since Trump took over. About two-thirds of U.S. adults,
68%, continue to say the country’s economy is “poor.” That’s unchanged
from the last time the question was asked in October, and it's broadly
in line with views throughout Biden’s last year in office.
Why Trump gets higher approval on border security than immigration
Trump's approval ratings on immigration have declined since March, but
border security remains a relatively strong issue for him. Half of U.S.
adults, 50%, approve of how Trump is handling border security, which is
just slightly lower than the 55% who approved in September.
[to top of second column]
|
President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable discussion with
business leaders in the Roosevelt Room of the White House,
Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Trump’s relative strength on border security is partially driven by
Democrats and independents. About one-third of independents, 36%,
approve of Trump on the border, while 26% approve on immigration.
Jim Rollins, an 82-year-old independent in Macon, Georgia, said he
believes that when it comes to closing the border, Trump has done “a
good job,” but he hopes the administration will rethink its mass
deportation efforts.
“Taking people out of kindergarten, and people going home for
Thanksgiving, taking them off a plane. If they are criminals, sure,”
said Rollins, who said he supported Trump in his first election but
not since then. “But the percentages — based on the government’s own
statistics — say that they’re not criminals. They just didn’t
register, and maybe they sneaked across the border, and they’ve been
here for 15 years.”
Other polls have shown it’s more popular to increase border security
than to deport immigrants, even those who are living in the country
illegally. Nearly half of Americans said increasing security at the
U.S.-Mexico border should be “a high priority” for the government in
AP-NORC polling from September. Only about 3 in 10 said the same
about deporting immigrants in the U.S. illegally.
Shaniqwa Copeland, a 30-year-old independent and home health aide in
St. Augustine, Florida, said she approves of Trump’s overall
handling of the presidency but believes his immigration actions have
gone too far, especially when it comes to masked federal agents
leading large raids.
“Now they’re just picking up anybody,” Copeland said. “They just
like, pick up people, grabbing anybody. It’s crazy.”
Health care and government management remain thorns for Trump
About 3 in 10 U.S. adults approve of how Trump is handling health
care, down slightly from November. The new poll was conducted in
early December, as Trump and Congress struggled to find a bipartisan
deal for extending the Affordable Care Act subsidies that will
expire at the end of this month.
That health care fight was also the source of the recent government
shutdown. About one-third of U.S. adults, 35%, approve of how Trump
is managing the federal government, down from 43% in March.
But some Americans may see others at fault for the country's
problems, in addition to Trump. Copeland is unhappy with the
country's health care system and thinks things are getting worse but
is not sure of whether to blame Trump or Biden.
“A couple years ago, I could find a dentist and it would be easy.
Now, I have a different health care provider, and it’s like so hard
to find a dental (plan) with them,” she said. “And the people that
do take that insurance, they have so many scheduled out far, far
appointments because it’s so many people on it.”
___
The AP-NORC poll of 1,146 adults was conducted Dec. 4-8 using a
sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which
is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin
of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4 percentage
points.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
