President Trump heads into the summer having racked up a series of second-term wins, including curtailing runaway illegal immigration, netting trillions of dollars in business investment from the Middle East, reducing inflation, lowering gasoline prices and exceeding Wall Street’s job creation forecasts.
He has embarked on mass deportations of illegal immigrants, purged woke policies from the government and taken dramatic steps to shrink the federal bureaucracy, though many of these moves are tangled up in the courts.
Mr. Trump has also roiled the stock market with harsh trade policies, and his poll numbers are starting to slide.
Voters are likely overlooking Mr. Trump’s accomplishments, said Republican Party strategist Jimmy Keady.
“He’s governed with conviction, not calculation, prioritizing American workers over global elites. That kind of leadership isn’t just bold; it’s effective. And it remains exactly why he remains a dominant force in American politics,” Mr. Keady said.
He pointed to Mr. Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which the House passed last week. It cuts taxes and heads off the largest tax hike in history by stopping the 2017 Trump tax cuts from expiring.
Mr. Keady credited Mr. Trump with helping bring down gas prices by increasing energy production and slashing unnecessary government spending.
Mr. Trump’s critics, however, say the poll dip reflects Americans’ exasperation with the president.
Brad Bannon, a Democratic Party strategist, said he would give Mr. Trump an F for his handling of the economy. He predicted that the issue would give Democrats majority control of the House and Senate after the midterm elections next year.
“Given Trump’s approval ratings and completely reckless economic promises, which are increasing prices, there’s a decent chance of Democrats taking the midterms,” he said. “Trump promised to reduce prices on Day 1, and so far it’s been a complete disaster.”
An aggregate of polls compiled by Real Clear Politics shows that voters give Mr. Trump the poorest marks on his handling of the economy and inflation.
Roughly 47.7% of Americans approve of the job Mr. Trump is doing, and 49.3% disapprove. Earlier this month, 51% of Americans disapproved of his job performance and 45% approved. However, the president has had more than 50% approval as recently as March.
Mr. Trump’s two most significant areas of struggle were the economy, where he was underwater by 11 percentage points, with 53% disapproving and 42% approving, and inflation, where he was down by 21 percentage points, with 60% disapproving and 39% approving. According to the aggregate polling, voters gave the president high marks for his handling of immigration, where his approval rating was 3 percentage points higher than his disapproval rating.
Despite frustration with the economy evident in the polls, prices of many items are lower than they were a year ago but above pre-pandemic levels.
The prices of smartphones have dropped 14% from May 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index. Gas prices are down 12%, and clothing prices are down 5%. The cost of some food products, including lettuce and tomatoes, is down by as much as 6%.
Mr. Trump’s sweeping proposal to put tariffs on imports from virtually all U.S. trading partners triggered a massive sell-off in the financial markets, raising recession fears.
The markets regained most of their losses after Mr. Trump backed off some of his most controversial tariff policies and announced trade deals with Britain and China.
At the same time, U.S. businesses keep adding jobs even as Mr. Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency have fired tens of thousands of federal workers.
Employers added 177,000 jobs in April, well above economists’ modest expectations of 135,000. The better-than-expected data shows the market remains resilient despite Mr. Trump’s trade wars and government layoffs.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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