On "Forbes Newsroom," Matt Taglia, Senior Director of Emerson College Polling, discussed a new Emerson poll showing how Americans feel about President Donald Trump.
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00:00I'm Brittany Lewis, a breaking news reporter here at Forbes. Joining me now is Matt Taglia,
00:04Senior Director of Emerson College Polling. Matt, thanks so much for joining me.
00:08Thanks for having me.
00:10President Trump has officially made it to his second first 100 days in office.
00:15And this milestone really feels like a good time to give the country a pulse check,
00:19see how they think that the president's doing, what they feel so far about Trump 2.0.
00:25So to start off the conversation, what's President Trump's job approval rating now
00:30as we sit here after the first 100 days?
00:34Yeah, Brittany. So after the first 100 days, the country is split.
00:39So 45 percent approve of Donald Trump's job performance as president, 45 percent disapprove.
00:45And then we've got 10 percent who are neutral, have no opinion.
00:48Now that's down from 47 percent approval since March during our 50-day poll.
00:56And a bit of a steady slide since inauguration.
01:00We had him up quite a bit in January.
01:03And so now he's sitting at near even numbers.
01:08So, you know, I don't think that this is necessarily bad news for President Trump.
01:13I know that it's a little bit higher than some of the other polls that have come out for the 100 days.
01:19But it is not the positive trajectory that the president might want to see.
01:25Yeah, you definitely, in the last three months, you don't want to see a trend line going down over your approval.
01:32But what do the numbers look like when you break it down by demo?
01:36Yeah, and I think, you know, we see it's very much partisan.
01:39So Democrats overwhelmingly disapprove of the president's job performance.
01:45Republicans overwhelmingly approve.
01:47But when you look at independents, 36 percent approve and 44 percent disapprove.
01:53I think that that is a bit telling.
01:55I know that they do form a little bit smaller core of the electorate than the highly partisan voters.
02:02But for those middle-of-the-road voters out there, they don't necessarily like what they're seeing from President Trump.
02:09I know that we are in a really interesting spot right now because it's Trump 2.0, like we've been saying.
02:16But we had this four-year break, a four-year Biden break, between President Trump's first term and now.
02:22So people have gotten a taste of President Trump for four years before.
02:27Do people think that he's doing a better-than-expected or worse-than-expected job this time around?
02:32Yeah, and a plurality of folks say that Trump is doing a worse-than-expected job.
02:40So 43 percent say that he's doing worse than they expected.
02:45That's an increase of seven points since our 50-day poll.
02:50So, you know, I think that it's clear, you know, that trajectory is definitely coming down.
02:57I think once you look at some of the policy positions of Trump and the Trump administration,
03:02you can see why that may be the case, especially when you look at the economy and tariffs in particular.
03:08You can see why that may be the case, especially when you look at the economy and tariffs in particular.