Key findings
Americans have delivered a verdict on the first 100 days of President Trump’s second term in an exclusive YouGov poll for The Times.
The survey of a 1,296-strong representative sample of adults on April 21-23, in advance of Trump’s 100th day in office on Tuesday, yields a series of revelations ranging from voters’ economic woes to which of the president’s policies have proven most and least popular.
The economy
Trump is failing to “make America wealthy again”, according to both Republicans and Democrats, with voters calling tariffs his biggest mistake.
Only 11 per cent of Americans say they are better off since Trump took office — including just 14 per cent of Republicans — while only 23 per cent regard the state of the economy as “excellent” or “good”.
Only a third of Americans think Trump’s policies will make them better off a year from now, despite his handling of the economy being one of the main reasons behind his election victory last year.
Approval ratings
Trump is regarded favourably by 39 per cent of US voters and unfavourably by 51 per cent, YouGov found, with a massive divide among Republicans and Democrats reflecting the polarisation of the Trump era.
Just 37 per cent of Americans give Trump’s first 100 days a grade of excellent or good, with 59 per cent rating it fair or poor. Twice as many voters give him a grade of “poor” (44 per cent) than “excellent” (21 per cent).
Among the subgroups giving Trump the lowest marks for the first 100 days are two that shifted towards him and the Republicans in the 2024 election: those aged 18 to 29 (25 per cent say his second term has been excellent or good, against 69 per cent fair or poor), and Hispanics (also 25 per cent v 69 per cent).
“The results on the economy are clear — Donald Trump was elected in large part to solve the inflation problem, and the opinions range from ‘it hasn’t been solved’ to ‘it’s getting worse’,” Mark Blumenthal, an analyst for YouGov, said. “That is a big reason why his approval numbers are dropping.”
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Trump’s approval rating peaked at 49 per cent with registered voters at the start of his second term, but the Times poll finds approval for his presidency at 42 per cent and disapproval at 53 per cent, giving him a net rating of minus 11.
“The cost of living and the economy was the issue mentioned most often when we asked people what was the most important issue to them before the election, and it still is,” Blumenthal said.
“On several questions that we asked, it is clear that at the very least there’s little perception of an improvement. It is striking that 51 per cent say the economy is getting worse, when that was one of the main problems Trump was elected to fix.
“Only 33 per cent think that they will be better off a year from now, so it’s not as if there’s a majority who are convinced this is short-term pain for some long-term gain. That’s an attitude expressed far more often by Republicans than by other Americans.”
Blumenthal said this was a big factor behind the finding that “twice as many think that Trump’s second term so far has been worse than expected than those who say better than expected”.
Asked how Trump’s presidency measured up to their expectations, 22 per cent said it was better than expected — mostly Republicans — while 41 per cent said it was worse than expected. Only 32 per cent of the crucial independent voters who are key to election success have a favourable opinion of Trump.
His biggest mistakes — and achievements
Tariffs have come to dominate discussion of Trump’s presidency in recent weeks since his announcement of sweeping border charges on “liberation day”, April 2, followed by the suspension of his higher rate reciprocal tariffs on April 10 for a 90-day negotiation period after financial markets tanked.
Only 27 per cent of Americans said they thought tariffs would make the United States more prosperous and only 16 per cent agreed that tariffs should be raised.
Trump may be hearing similar findings from his own polling because he defended the levies on his Truth Social platform on Sunday. “When tariffs cut in, many people’s income taxes will be substantially reduced, maybe even completely eliminated,” he wrote. “Focus will be on people making less than $200,000 a year. Also, massive numbers of jobs are already being created, with new plants and factories currently being built or planned. It will be a BONANZA FOR AMERICA!!! THE EXTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE IS HAPPENING!!!”
However, Americans appear sceptical of these claims, having seen a drop in the value of stock market-linked pension funds.
Asked about the biggest mistake of Trump’s second term, tariffs came top, named by 25 per cent of poll respondents, followed by “firing thousands of federal workers” on 18 per cent, and “attempting to acquire or annex new US territories” on 9 per cent, all indicating concern among Americans about Trump’s most radical moves.
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When asked for Trump’s greatest achievements, the top one was “arresting and deporting illegal immigrants”, named by 25 per cent, followed by “ordering a ban on transgender athletes in girls and women’s sports”, chosen by 10 per cent.
Looking to the future — and ‘a third term’
Just under two thirds of Americans (61 per cent) said things in the country were “out of control”, although this is an improvement on the 68 per cent who said the same when asked last October under President Biden.
Overall 39 per cent said America’s best days were behind it, 35 per cent that its best days were ahead of it, and 5 per cent that they were happening now.
Almost half of respondents believed Trump would attempt to serve a third term despite the constitution’s two-term limit.
Trump has continued to suggest that he is looking into ways around the constitutional stipulation that “no person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice”.
The poll found 16 per cent of Americans believe Trump should attempt to serve a third term — including 33 per cent of Republicans — while 72 per cent do not, including a majority of Republicans (54 per cent).
Seventy-six per cent of Americans believe the constitution does not allow Trump to serve a third term and 5 per cent believe it does. A further 19 per cent say they are not sure.
The most common emotion expressed by Americans on Trump talking about running for a third term in 2028, when he will be 82, was “angry”, cited by 35 per cent of respondents. Choosing words that reflected their feelings from a list provided by YouGov, the next most common responses were “afraid” (27 per cent), “exhausted” (26 per cent), “amused” (18 per cent) and “excited” (14 per cent). Among Republicans, 30 per cent said they were “excited” about talk Trump might seek a third term.
While 42 per cent say Trump, 78, is too old to be president, 49 per cent say he is not.
Who could succeed him?
JD Vance, the vice-president, is the clear frontrunner to be nominated as the Republican candidate for the 2028 election, the poll shows.
Vance has the support of 31 per cent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents for the nomination. The next most popular choice was Trump himself (16 per cent). No other potential candidate won double-digit support, with 6 per cent for Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who competed for the nomination last year, and 5 per cent apiece for Trump’s eldest son, Donald Jr, and Robert F Kennedy Jr, his health secretary.
Kamala Harris has the support of 28 per cent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents for the 2028 Democratic nomination, followed by Pete Buttiegieg, Biden’s transport secretary, at 9 per cent and the senator Cory Booker, congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Gavin Newsom, governor of California, at 7 per cent each.
Methodology
YouGov interviewed 1,296 US adults between April 21 and 23, 2025 for The Times.
This sample was weighted according to gender, age, race and education based on the US Census American Community Survey, and the US Census Current Population Survey, as well as 2024 presidential vote, 2020 presidential vote and 2024 baseline partisan identification. Respondents were selected to be representative of U S adults. The weights range from 0.1 to 4.7, with a mean of 1 and a standard deviation of 0.5.
The margin of error for a percentage based upon the entire sample is ±3.1 points. The margin of error is larger for subsamples and differences of percentages.