Deep and broad dissatisfaction with Trump

A CNN poll shows indications of building wave.

CNN released a poll today that’s brutal for the Trump administration. Only 39% agree with the way he’s handling his job as president while 61% disagree, including 46% who strongly disagree. With the midterm election less than ten months away, those are numbers that should have Republicans running for the bunkers.

Trump is especially in trouble on the economy. His approval rating on the economy mirrors his overall rating, with only 39% approving and 61% disapproving. Economic matters tend to drive elections and time to reverse the trend is shrinking.

He’s also underwater on every other issue polled. On health care he’s down 36%-62%. On foreign policy, 39%-60%. Even on immigration, 58% disagree with the way he’s handling the job. On Venezuela, he’s down 42%-58%. He’s only satisfying the cult.

And the hits just keep coming. Only 33% say he cares about people like them. Only 37% say he puts the good of the country above his own personal gain. Only 41% say he’s an effective world leader. And the kicker, only 35% say he’s someone they are proud to have as president. Almost two-thirds of the people say they are not proud to have him as President of the United States.

The economy is the driver of the dissatisfaction, with 42% saying it’s the most important issue, but Trump’s personality is hurting him, too. Of the people who disapprove of the way Trump is handling his job, 35% say his temperament and personal behavior are the main reasons. In other words, we have a personally distasteful president who most people believe is failing to deliver on the issues most important to them.

Overall, 58% believe Trump’s term has been a failure so far, reflecting Joe Biden at this point in his presidency. However, Biden’s problems were driven mostly by almost 9% inflation that was still going up. Trump’s problems are much more widespread.

The poll indicates an administration that has overreached. Trump and his minions believed their own spin about a mandate after narrowly capturing the presidency. The poll shows a country that thinks its leaders have gone too far on too many issues, from renaming the Kennedy Center to abusing the power of the executive branch to cutting the federal government to deportations to foreign policy debacles. Essentially, a solid majority of the people think the administration has focused too much on things they care less about while ignoring the problems that matter to them most.

This poll is relevant because we are firmly in the 2026 election cycle and the midterms will be a referendum on Trump. While his approval rating alone would be concerning, the intensity of the disapproval and the breadth of the dissatisfaction indicates a building wave. Many of the problems are too entrenched to fix and nobody has illusions anymore that Trump will become more presidential.

Only two other recent administrations have faced such daunting disapproval ratings at this point in their terms. In January 2022, 57% of the people saw Joe Biden as a failure and the following November Democrats lost control of Congress. In January 2006, 52% of the country saw George W. Bush as failure and in November, Republicans lost the House and Senate in the biggest Democratic wave in decades. May Republicans suffer the same fate this November.