Far more Americans say Trump is making the way the federal government works worse than better
By Jocelyn Kiley ,Gabriel Borelli ,Joseph Copeland and Shanay Gracia
Six months into his second term, public evaluations of President Donald Trump’s job performance have grown more negative. His job approval stands at 38% (60% disapprove), and fewer Americans now attribute several positive personal characteristics to him than did so during the campaign.
Two of the new administration’s signature accomplishments – the rollout of its tariff policies and the tax and spending law known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill” – garner considerably more disapproval than approval:
61% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s tariff policies, while 38% approve.
46% disapprove of the tax and spending law, while 32% approve (23% say they are unsure).
While there are wide partisan divides over both initiatives – with Republicans largely supportive and Democrats largely in opposition – Democratic disapproval substantially outpaces Republican approval.
The latest national survey by Pew Research Center – conducted Aug. 4-10 among 3,554 adults – also finds that a 53% majority say Trump is making the federal government work worse, while only about half as many (27%) say he is making the government work better. (Two-in-ten say he is making things about equally better and worse.)
Both Republicans and Democrats now offer more negative assessments of Trump’s impact on the federal government than they had predicted in a survey conducted in the weeks immediately following Trump’s inauguration:
55% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents now say Trump is improving the way the federal government works – while 16% say he’s making things worse and 29% say his effect is a mix of positive and negative. In the weeks after he took office, 76% of Republicans expected he would make government work better.
87% of Democrats and Democratic leaners say Trump is worsening the way government functions, up from 78% who said this at the beginning of his term.
Trump’s job performance and personal traits
Trump’s approval rating has slipped 3 percentage points over the last two months and is down 9 points since shortly after he took office. This drop is attributable to a combination of declining approval among his 2024 backers and adults who did not vote in November:
The vast majority of Trump’s 2024 voters continue to approve of his job performance – but that share is down to 85% from 88% in June and 95% in the weeks after his inauguration.
32% of 2024 nonvoters now approve of Trump’s job performance – down from 36% in June and 45% at the beginning of his term.
People who identify as strong Republicans continue to overwhelmingly approve of Trump’s job performance: 93% do so today, little different than the 96% who approved at the outset of his presidency. But there has been substantial erosion in his approval over this period among those who identify as Republicans but not strongly, as well as among independents who lean toward the GOP: About six-in-ten of those in these groups approve of Trump’s performance today, down from roughly three-quarters at the start of his second term.
Public assessments of Trump on several personal traits are also more negative than they were in 2024. Fewer now say he cares about the needs of ordinary people (37% today, 42% last summer), is a good role model (29% now, 34% then) or is mentally sharp (48% now, 53% then).
Trump is widely described as standing up for what he believes in: 68% say this today, identical to the share who said this last summer.
Other key findings
Fewer than half of Americans express confidence in Trump on key issues asked on the survey. But Americans express somewhat more confidence in Trump to negotiate trade agreements (47% are at least somewhat confident) and to handle immigration (46%) than on some other issues, including foreign policy (43%) and health care policy (38%). Read more in Chapter 2.
Confidence in Trump to make wise decisions about the war between Ukraine and Russia is now lower than it was before he took office. Today, 40% of U.S. adults say they are at least somewhat confident in Trump’s decision-making on this conflict; last July, 45% expressed confidence. Republican confidence has declined by 8 percentage points over this period (73% of Republicans now say they are confident in Trump to handle this issue, down from 81% last summer). As was the case last year, only about one-in-ten Democrats express confidence in Trump to handle this issue.
Seven-in-ten Americans disapprove of the Trump administration’s handling of information related to the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, while 25% approve. GOP views are fairly divided (53% disapprove of the administration’s handling, while 44% approve), with disapproval higher among younger Republicans than older Republicans. Democrats overwhelmingly express disapproval (90%).
Most Americans also distrust what the administration is saying about the Epstein issue: 63% say they have little or no trust in what the administration is saying, including 88% of Democrats and 38% of Republicans. About a quarter of Republicans say they trust a great deal or fair amount of what the administration is saying (34% say they trust some of what it is saying).
