A new poll published by Rupert Murdoch’s flagship business newspaper paints a grim picture for Donald Trump a year into his second term, revealing widespread voter dissatisfaction across key issues.
A Wall Street Journal poll, conducted Jan. 8-13 among 1,500 registered voters, shows public confidence in the economy has slid sharply since last summer.
By 15 percentage points, voters are now more likely to rate the economy as weak rather than strong—a steep deterioration from July, when negative views outpaced positive ones by just 4 points. About 50 percent of voters say the economy has worsened over the past year, compared with 35 percent who believe it has improved.
That pessimism is weighing heavily on views of Trump’s second term as president. While 45 percent of voters approve of his job performance, 54 percent disapprove, expanding the gap from 6 points in July to 9 points in the latest survey. Many respondents say the president is focused on foreign affairs and other issues at the expense of what they see as their most urgent concerns: rising prices and the broader economy. A slight majority—53 percent—say Trump is spending too much time on unnecessary foreign matters.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
The poll comes as Trump has taken an increasingly aggressive approach to foreign policy in recent months —including ordering the abduction the president of Venezuela in a military raid to assert control over the country’s vast oil resources, as well as public threats toward Iran and calls to “take over” the Danish island of Greenland.
And polls show that has unsettled voters who remember Trump’s “America First” campaign promise to avoid costly overseas entanglements. An AP-NORC poll from this month showed that 56 percent think the president Trump has overstepped in his use of U.S. military force abroad; 61 percent disapprove of the way he’s handling foreign policy overall.
Meanwhile, polling shows that the issue at the top of voters’ minds is rising prices, not foreign policy. A recent Quinnipiac University poll found 64 percent of registered voters said the cost of living is a “very serious problem” in the United States.
As a result, Trump has made a push for measures aimed at making prices more affordable, including capping credit-card interest rates and limiting large investor purchases of homes to ease housing costs.
But despite a recent burst of affordability proposals from the White House, the WSJ poll shows that Trump’s handling of inflation fares poorly, with disapproval exceeding approval by 17 points, worse than the 11-point gap recorded in July. His management of the economy and tariffs is also underwater, with disapproval topping approval by 10 points.
And although Trump argues he “inherited a mess,” 58 percent of voters say his own policies bear the most responsibility for current economic conditions, compared with 31 percent who blame former President Joe Biden.
But it is not all bad news for Trump. Despite overall pessimism about the economy, the poll also shows he still maintains strong support from his base, with 92 percent of his 2024 voters saying they approve of his performance, including seven in 10 who say they approve strongly.
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