We just passed month four of Trump Regime 2.0, and it’s been a bit of a ride so far. What has been happening is not just “flooding the zone” but more “drown everyone”. It is tough to keep up or know where to focus. Sadly it seems to be somewhat working. Those pushing back are having trouble knowing where and how, and the general public is often times more confused given the difficulty of accessing to easy to find and credible information about what is actually happening versus what is spin or being labeled as overreaction.

While there is no one number that shows exactly where the public stand’s on the President so far, one decent standin is to look at his overall approval. Using the Real Clear Politics average, the first three months were not great for the President, with approval going from about 51% at the end of January to 45% at the end of April, while disapproval went from 44% to 52%. Over the past month disapproval dropped to about 50%, while his approval rose to 47%. Not massive movements in the past 30 days, but clearly the negative momentum stalled and a slight rebound has happened (at least through the first 20ish days of May).

Outside of the overall approval, taking a look at some of the specific issues that the Trump regime has been focusing on, often gives a little more depth and understanding to where the public sits.

Policy Approvals

When asked what percent of Trump’s approach they approve of (versus just a straight up, do you approve?) we find that Americans, on average, are very torn on his approach to border protection and immigration. At the same time, Americans lean towards opposing his approaches to DEI and the economy.

(There is an interactive graph on our website where you can filter the data here.)

Views by 2024 Vote

Not surprisingly, 2024 Trump voters are generally supportive of his approaches, while Harris supporters feel the opposite. At the same time it may be a little surprising that the support and opposition is not respectively universal. Trump voters oppose about a third of his approach to immigration, as well as his border protection and DEI policies. On the economy, Trump voters support a majority of his approach (61%) but oppose 39% of his policies, on average. By far his lowest level of support from his own voters.

For Harris voters, the numbers are roughly opposite with slightly more support for border protection and immigration.

What is arguably more interesting, is the differences (or lack thereof) when we look at the reactions based on what type of state respondents live in. Red State voters tend to be the most supportive, however the minimal difference between Americans in these states, versus Blue States and Swing States is somewhat surprising.

Breakdown of Views

The general divisions are not just in the averages but also when we look at the breakdown of the scores. Trump’s approach to border protection is the most divided with 28% of Americans supporting 80% or more of his approach, with 26% supporting 20% or less. On immigration the split is similar with 28% supporting 80% or more of the approach, while 26% support 20% or less.

His approach to DEI is divided, but there is a larger percentage at the low end of the support scale (27%) compared to the top end (23%). His approach to the economy has by far the lowest concentration of strong supporters with just 1 in 5 Americans (19%) saying that they support 80% or more of Trump’s approach. At the same time, 31% support very little to none of his approach.

While a majority of 2024 Trump voters are on board with most, if not all, of his approaches to all four issues, there are clearly differences based on the exact issue. Border protection and immigration have some detractors in this cohort (between 20 and 25%) and interestingly the largest concentration of his supporters who are not on board with much or any of his plans is border protection.

Most shifts away from strong support move to the middle of the scale verses going all the way to opposing his approach, which points to the potential start of his overall support eroding, but by no means is it a done deal.

Among Harris voters, opposition is strong, but not universal. Roughly 1 in 5 Harris supporters support Trump’s approach at a higher level.

For both Harris and Trump voters support and opposition very issue specific. Six in 10 (60%) of Harris supporters support at least one of Trump’s approaches, while just 13% support three or four of the approaches to the issues tested. For Trump voters, just 27% support his approaches to all four issues, while 9% support none of his approaches and 13% give a nod to just one issue.

American voters tend to be more nuanced that they are typically given credit for and anyone claiming that Americans universally support, or oppose, the President’s approach is stating an opinion, and not one based on data.

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