Where He Started and Where He Stands
Context matters when reading these numbers. When Donald Trump began his second term, approval at 47% was already the second-lowest start for any president in modern polling history – second only to his own first term. The fact that a president who entered his second term with already-subdued public support has since shed another 10 to 13 points is the defining characteristic of this period.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that Trump’s overall approval rating stands at 34% among all respondents and 37% among registered voters, both second-term lows for the president. The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted April 24-27, 2026, using the probability-based KnowledgePanel.
For comparison, Trump’s approval in his first term was, for the most part, relatively flat. He spent most of that presidency with approval in the low 40s – broadly normal for a modern president – including heading into the 2018 midterms and his 2020 reelection race. The current second-term trajectory is different. The numbers have trended slowly but steadily downward, and that trend predated the Iran war.