Confidence in Trump Dips, and Fewer Now Say They Support His Policies and Plans

About this research  

This Pew Research Center report looks at how the U.S. public feels about Trump’s job performance, their expectations for his administration, and their views about whether congressional leaders should work with each other and the president.

Why did we do this? 

Pew Research Center conducted this research to check in on how the public is feeling about the Trump administration. It is part of our regular work to understand how Americans feel about the policies, actions and events that occur during the presidency – as well as to understand how Americans feel about current events.

Our research on presidents dates back to the 1980s, and has continued through the current Trump administration.

Learn more about Pew Research Center and our politics research.   

How did we do this? 

We conducted a survey from January 20 through January 26, 2026 among 8,512 U.S. adults recruited through our American Trends panel.

Here are the survey questions used for this report, the detailed responses and the survey methodology.  

A year into his second administration, Americans’ views of President Donald Trump – already more negative than positive – have continued to slip.

• Trump’s approval rating stands at 37%, down from 40% in the fall.
• By more than two-to-one, Americans say the administration’s actions have been worse than they expected (50%) rather than better (21%).
• Only about a quarter of Americans today (27%) say they support all or most of Trump’s policies and plans, down from 35% when he returned to office last year. That change has come entirely among Republicans.

A new Pew Research Center survey of 8,512 U.S. adults, conducted Jan. 20-26, also finds that – across six key qualities and abilities needed to serve as president – more Americans express little or no confidence in Trump than say they are extremely or very confident in him.

Confidence is down on all six measures since last year, particularly among Republicans.

Related: How Americans See Immigration Officers’ Behaviors and Civilian Actions

Trump’s qualities and abilities as president

Today, 34% of Americans say they are extremely or very confident that Trump has the leadership skills needed to serve as president. A larger share (51%) are not too or not at all confident. Another 14% are somewhat confident.

Similarly, about half say they are not too or not at all confident Trump has the mental fitness (52%) or physical fitness (50%) to do the job. Roughly three-in-ten express confidence on these measures.

Even fewer say they are confident that Trump respects the country’s democratic values (25% are extremely or very confident) or that he picks good advisers (25%).

Americans express the least amount of confidence in Trump to act ethically in office. Just 21% are extremely or very confident he does this, while 60% express little or no confidence.

While overall confidence in Trump’s ethics in office was already relatively low last February (29%), it has declined 8 percentage points since. And nearly all of that drop has come among Republicans: At the beginning of Trump’s second term, a 55% majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said they were confident that Trump acts ethically in office, but that share now stands at 42%.

There’s a similar pattern across all six qualities we asked about.

For example, 60% of Republicans said last February that they were extremely or very confident Trump respects the country’s democratic values – it’s 52% today. And while 66% of Republicans say he has the mental fitness to do the job, that’s down from three-quarters last year.

Democrats’ confidence in Trump on these measures remains very low.

For full trend on each of the qualities asked on the survey, refer to chart appendix.

Support for Trump’s policies

There has also been a significant decline over the last year in the share of adults who say they agree with Trump’s plans and policies.

• Last year, 35% said they supported all or most of his plans, 17% supported some of them and 47% supported only a few or none.
• Today, 27% say they support all or most, 20% support some and 52% support few or none.

The decline in support has come exclusively among Republicans. Last year, 67% said they supported all or most of Trump’s plans and policies. Today, 56% do.

Very small shares of Democrats say they support his policies. Most (87%) support only a few or none.

Related: Few Americans support Trump’s proposed takeover of Greenland.

For full trend details, refer to the appendix.

Do Republicans in Congress have an obligation to support Trump?

Today, 38% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say that congressional Republicans “have an obligation to support Trump’s policies and programs because he is a Republican president.” But a far larger share (61%) say GOP members of Congress do not have an obligation to support Trump if they disagree with him.

The share saying Republicans in Congress do not have this obligation is up since last year, from 55%.

Other key findings from the survey

• Democrats overwhelmingly say their congressional leadership should stand up to Trump. Today, 82% (up from 70% last year) want to see their leaders pushing back against Trump, even if that makes it harder to address problems. A smaller majority of Republicans (61%) say Trump should stand up to Democratic leaders. This is similar to their views a year ago.
• Nearly half of Americans (47%) now say Trump will be an unsuccessful president in the long term. This share is up 14 points since last year, with most of this change occurring among Democrats. A majority of Republicans continue to say Trump will be successful in the long run.
• Trump’s approval among Republicans is now 73% – down slightly since September. Older Americans, White adults and those without a college degree continue to approve of his performance more than others. See detailed tables for additional demographic breaks.