Americans are divided about President Donald Trump’s job performance on the eve of his first address to Congress since returning to the White House, according to the latest PBS News/NPR/Marist poll. Yet support for him is higher than at any point during his first term.
His job approval remains underwater, with 49 percent disapproving. Another 45 percent approve of his record so far, including 36 percent of Americans who strongly approve – another high-water mark for Trump.
This poll also found a growing sense from the public that the country is headed in the right direction: 45 percent of Americans believe so, up 10 points from December and now at the second-highest point of the last 15 years. Even still, the poll found more than half of Americans (54 percent) believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.
WATCH LIVE: President Donald Trump’s 2025 address to Congress | PBS News Special
The president is benefiting from a political honeymoon, said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion. Trump’s 45 percent approval is a “cautionary number” that is hard to interpret as broad support for his agenda, Miringoff said.
In follow-up conversations with PBS News, poll respondents described the president’s first month as everything from “fabulous” to “chaos” to “disaster.” Impressions were divided strongly along party lines, and none of the people we spoke to changed their views of Trump since the election.
The first 43 days of the Trump administration have been a rapid-fire rush of executive actions. The president has signed 76 executive orders so far, more than the total number he signed in any single year of his first term.
President Donald Trump’s approval rating is split as he prepares to address Congress. Some 49 percent of Americans disapprove of his performance in office. Another 45 percent approve of his record so far, including 36 percent of Americans who strongly approve – another high-water mark for Trump. Graphic by Jenna Cohen/PBS News
When Trump addresses Congress on Tuesday, he’s likely to tout what his administration has done over the last month and a half. He’s taken action to shut down immigration pathways, freeze foreign aid, impose tariffs on trading partners and dramatically scale back the size and scope of the federal government.
Americans are divided on whether Trump’s actions have improved the country’s standing: 45 percent say the president is changing the country for the better while 48 percent say the changes have been for the worse. That includes 54 percent of independents and 5 percent of people who voted for Trump, who Miringoff said may now be feeling some “buyer’s remorse.” Another 7 percent say his actions have not brought about change.
His actions on immigration are seen most favorably, with 47 percent saying they have been for the better and 43 percent for worse. But his actions on the economy and foreign policy are seen by higher percentages of Americans (46 and 49 percent, respectively) as being for the worse.
“We’re seeing a president who is certainly back in the realm of major controversy just over a month since he took the oath of office. And it’s been a flooding-of-the-zone here every day, often multiple times a day,” Miringoff said. “We’re just seeing a lot of things happening with little time for the public to digest. The net effect of it all is there’s a sense, on the part of the public, that some things are moving just a little too fast.”
Americans are divided on whether President Donald Trump’s actions have improved the country’s standing: 45 percent say the president is changing the country for the better while 48 percent say the changes have been for the worse. Graphic by Jenna Cohen/PBS News
Trump’s near-daily executive order signings in the Oval Office, played out on-camera in real time, have underlined the frenetic pace of his actions. These events have often morphed into free-wheeling exchanges with the news media. Other meetings have turned combative, like his sit-down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday. “This is going to be great television,” Trump noted in that meeting with Zelenskyy.
The public seems to be taking notice. In this latest poll, 56 percent of Americans say the president is rushing to make change without considering the impact of his decisions. That includes two-thirds of independents and 11 percent of Trump voters. Another 43 percent of Americans believe the president is doing what needs to be done to get the government on track.
The president’s supporters, including self-described political independent Dominique Evans from California, like Trump’s efforts to bring about change to government. “Hopefully, it’s for the better,” she said.
“He’s trying to keep his promises,” said Gilbert Diaz, a Republican from Texas who voted for Trump. Diaz is particularly supportive of the president’s actions to shut down the southern border.
“We have to correct the destruction that has happened to our country and our society over the last four years,” he said. “But you cannot turn [around] all the years of damage in one or two or three or four months. It’s much easier to destroy things than build them.”
“Dead weight is being cut away,” Pennsylvania Republican Evelyn Ardini said. She likes the cutbacks to the federal workforce implemented by the Trump administration and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, spearheaded by Elon Musk. She, too, urged Trump’s dissenters to “give him some time” for the effects of his policy changes to be felt.
Others say the cuts to government have gone too far.
J.K., a political independent from Michigan who asked to not share his name because he has government contract work, voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in November and is unhappy with the cuts made by the Trump administration so far.
“Everything is going at breakneck speed to dismantle a system that’s been standing tall and working for the American people for decades,” he said. “They’re performing surgery with a sword and a blindfold, and they’re just moving at this breakneck, chaotic speed. And it’s unnecessary.”
Tanya Staud is another independent voter who cast a ballot for Harris last year. She suggested she is not opposed to reevaluating government spending priorities, but she objected to the unilateral way the administration – and “king” Trump – is deciding what to cut.
“I agree that some things we should not be funding. We need to watch our spending,” she said. “But Congress is who controls the purse strings.”
Many of the firing decisions for the federal workforce are being directed by billionaire Musk and his DOGE team. Half of Americans view the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX in a negative light, a 4-point jump from before Trump took office. Another 39 percent view him favorably, up 2 points during the same time period. Perceptions of DOGE are similar, with 39 percent viewing the effort favorably and 44 percent unfavorably.
PBS News’ Tim McPhillips spoke with White House Correspondent Laura Barrón-López about who is behind DOGE and what the group has done so far.
Three-quarters of Republicans – including Diaz and Ardini – like Musk. He’s a “genius,” Diaz said. “I’m not saying Elon Musk is perfect, but at least he’s producing something.”
More than 8 in 10 Democrats disagree. Donald Ramber of Texas called Musk a “hatchet man” who is only looking to cut the budget.
A majority of independents (56 percent) also view Musk unfavorably.
“He’s unelected and he has immense power. And he has immense power because the president just said he did. But now he’s running roughshod over an entire American infrastructure,” said J.K., the independent from Michigan. “And now, unilaterally, we’re finding that the richest man on Earth is coming in and gutting our government.”
READ MORE: 5 facts about the federal workforce that may surprise you
Tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired so far. Many of them were probationary employees who were in their first year or two on the job or had recently moved to a new position in government. The cuts have hit every state and many government agencies, including the National Institutes of Health and the National Park Service.
Other government organizations like the Agency for International Development, or USAID, are being dismantled entirely, with thousands of employees placed on administrative leave.
More than half of Americans view these cuts to federal spending and the government workforce as going too far, according to this latest poll. Fifty-five percent of people, including 61 percent of independents, believe the cuts are doing more harm than good. Forty-five percent think they are doing more good than harm. An overwhelming majority of Republicans (84 percent) are supportive of the cuts.
Six in 10 Americans say most federal government employees are essential to the functioning of the United States. Forty percent say the country could function effectively without most federal government employees.
Through dozens of lawsuits filed in federal courts, several judges have issued temporary orders blocking many of the Trump administration cuts to spending and employment.
FILE PHOTO: Elon Musk speaks next to U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C. Photo by Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
So far, only some Republicans in Congress have spoken out to suggest the cuts have been too extreme.
“This is not how we treat any of our workforce. It’s not how we treat our federal employees. They deserve better,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said during a February town hall.
Other Republicans faced loud opposition from constituents in town hall meetings held during the recent congressional recess. Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., was asked how he would respond to Trump’s “tyranny.”
“They should be taking him to task,” independent voter Staud said about members of Congress. “But everybody’s too afraid of offending a constituent that they’re just letting him run amok because they’re also afraid of him and that they won’t get voted in again.”
Since Trump took office, Americans’ confidence in the system of checks and balances among the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government has dropped dramatically. Just 43 percent believe it is working well right now, a dramatic 23-point drop since December. Nearly three-quarters of Republicans have confidence in the system, but only a third of independents and 20 percent of Democrats agree.
More than half of Americans (56 percent) think checks and balances are not working.
As courts continue to review these policies and the president’s executive orders, a majority of Americans lack confidence that Trump will abide by any court ruling. That is perhaps driven by mixed messages from the administration itself. While Trump recently said he will “always abide by the courts,” Vice President JD Vance has suggested on X that “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”
“The judges are overstepping,” Republican voter Diaz said.
Forty-two percent of Americans believe Trump will abide by court rulings. Three-quarters of Republicans say he will, but only a third of independents and 18 percent of Democrats agree. Fifty-eight percent of Americans don’t have confidence he’ll follow court rulings.
“The idea that so many people say, ‘No, he won’t,’ really raises the ultimate questions about the experiment of democracy,” Miringoff said.
As Trump prepares to address Congress, here’s how Americans feel about some of his other policy priorities:
- 57 percent think grocery prices will increase over the next six months.
- 17 percent think grocery prices will decrease.
- 37 percent support Trump’s reported plans to get rid of the Department of Education.
- 63 percent disapprove of eliminating the Education Department.
- Trump’s suggestion that the United States will take control of Gaza is supported by 28 percent of Americans, and opposed by 71 percent.
PBS News, NPR and Marist Poll conducted a survey from Feb. 24 through Feb. 26, 2025, that polled 1,694 U.S. adults with a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points, and 1,533 registered voters with a margin of error of 3.0 percentage points.
