April 26, 2025
The public broadly feels the first few months of the Trump administration’s second term are unfolding as expected. But nearly twice as many say President Trump is mostly focusing on the wrong priorities than say he’s focusing on the right ones.
About 100 days into his second term, 31% view Trump’s presidency as good or great, while about half have a negative view. Overall, 39% have a favorable opinion of how Trump has been handling his job and 58% have an unfavorable view. Immigration remains one Trump’s strongest policy issues and he garners higher approval than his handling of other issues like trade or the economy.
While most views of the president and his administration are filtered through a partisan lens, Republicans and Democrats are largely in agreement regarding their expectations for the new administration.
Eight in 10 Republicans and 7 in 10 Democrats are unsurprised by Trump and his policies in the first 100 days.
While there is agreement along party lines that Trump’s first few months are in line with expectations, partisan opinion diverges on the administration’s actions, priorities, and personnel.
A majority of the public disapproves of Trump overall as president (59% vs 39%). This is starkly divided along party lines. The partisan divide carries through to Trump’s performance on a range of issues with the majority of Democrats disapproving and the majority of Republicans approving. People unaffiliated with either of the major parties tend to be more positive than Democrats, but still just about 3 in 10 approve of Trump’s handling on most issues.
About half of the public thinks Trump has been a poor or terrible president so far in his second term, about 2 in 10 view his presidency as average, and 3 in 10 think is has been great or good.
Ahead of his inauguration in January, 37% expected he would be a great or good president, 46% thought he would be poor or terrible and 17% said he would be average.
There is no consensus on whether Trump has the right priorities, but many are skeptical. Forty four percent think Trump is focusing on the wrong priorities. A quarter think he has the right priorities and another 2 in 10 think his priorities are an even mix of right and wrong.
Again, this is divided along party lines. Half of Republicans feel that, for the most part, Trump’s priorities have been correct, compared with just 7% of Democrats and 9% of independents.
About 4 in 10 have a favorable opinion of Trump, similar to his approval rating. When it comes to other key figures in the Trump administration, a third of the public approves of Vice President JD Vance and 4 in 10 have a favorable opinion of Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Republicans have positive views of Trump, Vance, and Kennedy, while Democrats have negative opinions.
Most feel that the country is headed in the wrong direction (62% vs 37%).
Democrats (87%) are more likely than both Republicans (29%) and independents (69%) to feel that the country is headed in the wrong direction. Sixty-nine percent of Republicans think the country is headed in the right direction compared with 27% of independents and 13% of Democrats.
The nationwide poll was conducted April 17-21, 2025 using the AmeriSpeak® Panel, the probability-based panel of NORC at the University of Chicago. Online and telephone interviews using landlines and cell phones were conducted with 1,260 adults. The overall margin of sampling error is +/- 3.9 percentage points.
- Suggested Citation: AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. “100 days in and the public feels Trump’s presidency is proceeding mostly as expected” (April 2025). https://apnorc.org/projects/100-days-in-and-the-public-feels-trumps-presidency-is-proceeding-mostly-as-expected
