Disapproval of Donald Trump has reached its highest level since the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, according to a new national poll released this week.
The Washington Post–ABC News poll, conducted between Feb. 12-17 among 2,589 U.S. adults, puts Trump’s approval rating at 39 percent positive and 60 percent negative among adults nationwide. Notably, nearly half of all respondents—47 percent—say they strongly disapprove of the president.
The last time Trump’s disapproval rating hit 60 percent was in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The new poll has a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
Trump’s disapproval ratings have slowly crept up since the beginning of his second term, hitting 53 percent in the Washington Post/ABC News poll in Feb. 2025, before reaching 59 percent in October.
But disapproval seems to have hit a new high this month amid the backlash over his administration’s policies. The poll shows that Trump’s net approval is deep in negative territory on several key issues: border security is at -3, the economy -16, immigration -18, tariffs -30, and inflation -33.
His weakest score is on inflation, where just 32 percent of respondents approve of how he has handled the issue.
Meanwhile, immigration, a critical issue in Trump’s political strategy, shows mixed results but is trending negative. While 50 percent of Americans support Trump’s call to deport the estimated 14 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., 58 percent say he is going too far in trying to deport them—up 10 points over the past 10 months.
Recent events, such as ICE operations in Minnesota, appear to have shifted public opinion further: roughly 60 percent oppose the tactics U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has used, and a majority oppose expanded enforcement to detain and deport undocumented immigrants.
Beyond specific policies, broad swaths of the public express concerns about Trump’s approach to power and leadership. Nearly two in three Americans (65 percent) say he has exceeded his authority in exercising presidential powers, up from earlier in his term, and a majority—56 percent—believe he is not committed to protecting Americans’ rights and freedoms.
Six in ten (62 percent) also say he is using the presidency to enrich himself, and more than half say his administration has not been transparent in releasing government files related to the investigation of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
On foreign policy and military use, a majority (54 percent) say they oppose his use of the U.S. military to force changes abroad, while just 20 percent support such actions.
But despite this overall negative sentiment, Trump’s general approval rating has held at 39 percent, effectively unchanged from October.
And the new poll showed that 85 percent of Republicans approve of his job performance, while 94 percent of Democrats and 69 percent of independents disapprove—nearly identical to the partisan breakdown from a similar Post-ABC-Ipsos poll late last year, suggesting that opinions on both side of the aisle have remained stable.
But the polls still show some warning signs for the president. Recent surveys have shown him losing support among key voter groups that propelled him into the White House in 2024, like young men, Hispanics, and non-college-educated Americans.
And the latest Marist poll, conducted between Jan 27-30 found that 55 percent of residents nationally say the direction in which President Trump is moving the country is change for the worse, up from 51 percent in April 2025.
A trio of surveys released this month also showed that Americans think Biden did a better job in the White House than Trump so far.
As a result, two Republican strategists told Axios earlier this month that they believe the Republican majority in the Senate may be difficult to hold on to in the midterms in November.
“A year ago, I would have told you we were almost guaranteed to win the Senate,” one of the GOP operatives said. “Today, I would have to tell you it’s far less certain.”
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