As President Donald Trump makes plans to send the National Guard to cities beyond Washington, he is facing a public critical of his handling of crime and his use of the military to combat it, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll.
The Washington Post
Most Americans critical of Trump on crime, economy and other issues, poll finds
The Post-Ipsos survey paints a downbeat picture of Trump’s presidency, as Americans disapprove of his performance by double-digit margins on a broad range of issues.
September 19, 2025
Republicans also hold advantages over Democrats on the economy and immigration, though a majority still say they want Democrats to control the next Congress “as a check on Trump.”
The findings come in a poll that, overall, paints a downbeat picture of Trump’s presidency eight months into his second term. Despite a slight uptick in his overall approval rating compared with April, Americans disapprove of his performance on a broad range of issues — the economy, immigration, foreign wars — and all by double-digit margins.
In fact, crime is his best issue, with 54 percent of Americans disapproving of his performance on it and 44 percent approving. A 55 percent majority disapprove of Trump’s handling of immigration, while 44 percent approve.
More than 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling tariffs. About 6 in 10 disapprove of how he is handling both the economy and the Israel-Gaza and Russia-Ukraine wars.
Overall, 56 percent of Americans disapprove of the way he is handling his job, while 43 percent approve — a negative 13-point margin. It’s a slight improvement over his approval rating in a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos survey that was done in April, which found adults disapproved of his job performance by a 16-point margin. The latest survey did not offer an explicit “no opinion” option for the job approval question because many respondents who selected it in April expressed opinions about the president in a follow-up open-ended question.
There is at least one broad area of agreement in the poll: About 7 in 10 Americans say they think Trump is making “fundamental changes” to the country, regardless of where they stand on his actions. About 9 in 10 Republicans say Trump is making fundamental changes, along with about 6 in 10 Democrats and independents.
The numbers on the economy could be especially concerning for Republicans as they prepare to defend their congressional majorities in next year’s midterm elections. More than two-thirds of Americans describe the state of the economy “not so good” or “poor.”
Asked about control of the next Congress, a majority — 53 percent — say they would like to see Democrats in charge “to act as a check on Trump.” Forty-two percent say they hope the GOP would remain in the majority “to support Trump’s agenda.” Democrats’ 11-point advantage on this question among voting-age adults narrows to nine points among registered voters.
The party that holds the White House historically struggles in midterm elections, and Republicans are defending an especially narrow majority in the House. Those challenges have led Trump to pressure red states across the country to redraw their congressional district boundaries to give his party more of an advantage — a demand that has touched off a national partisan battle over redistricting.
Trump has also been hunting for an edge on the economy by waging a months-long pressure campaign to persuade the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates. The central bank started doing so Wednesday, although the survey spelled trouble for other components of Trump’s economic agenda, including his sweeping global tariffs and the massive tax and spending law he signed this summer.
Crime and immigration
Trump dispatched the National Guard in the nation’s capital last month and announced last week he would utilize it next in Memphis. In the weeks since the D.C. deployment, he has toyed with sending troops to several other cities, most frequently mentioning Chicago.
In the poll, 47 percent of Americans disapprove and 37 percent approve of his actions in Washington, which also included temporarily taking control of the local police department. But the public is a little more divided on the possibility of him sending troops into other cities, with 42 percent supporting the idea and 46 percent opposing it.
Trump’s earlier deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles — over the objection of California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) — swiftly drew legal challenges. A federal judge ruled earlier this month that the Trump administration willfully broke a law that prohibits the military from carrying out domestic law enforcement.
More broadly, the poll shows that 62 percent of Americans think Trump has gone beyond his authority as president, while 36 percent think he has acted properly. That is a larger divide compared with the last survey in April, when Americans split 60-40 on the question. Asked the same question about former president Joe Biden in the latest poll, 63 percent say he acted within his authority while 34 percent say he went beyond his authority.
Trump has also targeted America’s major cities with ramped-up efforts to deport undocumented immigrants, including in Chicago, where Immigrations and Customs Enforcement launched “Operation Midway Blitz” earlier this month.
The survey finds Americans are roughly split on whether immigrants deported by the administration should have been removed. Forty-seven percent of adults say “nearly all” or “most” immigrants who were removed should have been deported, while 50 percent say “less than half” or “hardly any” of the deportations should have occurred.
As with crime, most Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of immigration but more say they trust Republicans to address it over Democrats, while nearly 3 in 10 say they trust neither party.
The economy
There appears to be more political opportunity for Democrats on the economy. Not only do 68 percent of Americans have a negative view of the economy, according to the poll, but almost as many say it is a “bad time” to find a quality job in America. Positive ratings of the economy have risen five points since April but are little different from a year ago, when Trump leveraged economic frustrations to win a second term.
Republicans have a smaller advantage on the issue in the poll than they do on crime and immigration: 39 percent trust Republicans while 32 percent trust Democrats.
Adults disapprove of the way Trump is handling tariffs by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, unchanged from the poll in April, which was done days after Trump first announced far-reaching tariffs and promised they would soon force trade agreements that would boost the economy. He has since unveiled trade deals with Europe, Japan and other countries, but has yet to make agreements with China, India, Canada or Mexico.
The survey finds 70 percent of Americans think Trump’s tariffs are making the cost of things they buy go up, compared with 5 percent who think they are making the cost go down and 25 percent who think they are not making much difference.
The poll finds 43 percent of Americans think Trump’s agenda will put the economy on a weaker foundation for the long term, while 31 percent predict his agenda would put it on a stronger foundation and 20 percent say it is “too soon to say.” That deficit is virtually unchanged from the April poll.
Republicans have voiced confidence that the tax and spending bill that Trump signed into law in July will help the economy — as well as their midterm prospects. But the poll shows that it remains unpopular, with a plurality — 44 percent — saying they oppose the law, while 26 percent support it and 29 percent say they have no opinion. Those figures are mostly unchanged from the last Post-Ipsos poll in June, when the proposal was still working its way through Congress.
If there is encouraging political news for Republicans in the survey, it is the numbers showing Americans trust them more on the economy and immigration — and the finding that Americans see Democrats as more ideologically out of step. Fifty-four percent of Americans say they think the political views of Democrats were “too liberal,” compared with 49 percent who say the views of the GOP are “too conservative.” Both figures are up from a Post-ABC poll asking the same question in 2013.
Foreign policy
Trump has spent recent months attempting to broker peace in Israel’s war in Gaza and Russia’s war with Ukraine. But the poll finds Americans disapprove of his handling of each situation by 19 and 22 points, respectively.
The survey also shows that Americans continue to have a pessimistic view on the broader issue of U.S. leadership abroad with Trump in charge. Forty-six percent of Americans think America’s leadership has gotten weaker under Trump, while 36 percent think it has gotten stronger. The finding is nonetheless an improvement from the last poll, when the split was 49 percent to 34 percent.
The latest Post-Ipsos poll was conducted online Sept. 11-15 among 2,513 U.S. adults. The sample was drawn through the Ipsos KnowledgePanel, an ongoing panel of U.S. households recruited by mail using random sampling methods. Overall results have a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points.