Here’s what Americans think about Trump’s first year back in office, according to an AP-NORC poll

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s second term has been eventful. You wouldn’t know it from his approval numbers.

A January AP-NORC poll found that 4 in 10 American adults approve of Trump’s performance as president. That’s virtually unchanged since March 2025, shortly after he took office for the second time.

A new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows subtle signs of weakness for the Republican president. Trump has yet to convince Americans that the economy is in good shape, and many question whether he has the right priorities as he focuses on increasing foreign interference. His approval rating on immigration, one of his signature issues, has also slipped since he took office.

Here’s how Americans’ attitudes toward Trump have — and haven’t — changed over the past year, according to AP-NORC polling.

4 in 10 Americans consistently approve of Trump’s performance

Call it a gift or a curse — for all his unpredictability, Trump’s approval numbers aren’t changing much.

This was largely the case during his first term in office as well. At the start of his first term, 42% of Americans approved of how the president was handling his tenure. There were some ups and downs in the years that followed, but he left office with almost the same approval rating.

That level of stability in presidential approval numbers may be the new normal for American politics — or it may be unique to Trump. Gallup polling since the 1950s shows that presidential approval ratings have become less variable over time. But President Joe Biden’s experience was a little different. Biden, a Democrat, entered the White House with higher approval numbers than Trump received, but those declined rapidly during his first two years in office, then remained low for the rest of his tenure.

Most Americans have held a critical view of Trump throughout his time in office, and Americans are twice as likely to say he’s focused on the wrong priorities than the right priorities. About half of American adults say they often focused on the wrong priorities a year into their second term, and about 2 in 10 say they mostly focused on the right priorities. Another 2 in 10, roughly, say it’s about an even mix, and 14% say they have no opinion.

Challenges in the economy

Despite his insistence that “the Trump economic boom has officially begun,” the economy has plagued Trump in his first year in the White House.

Only 37% of American adults approve of how Trump is handling the economy. That’s up slightly from 31% in December — which marked a low point for Trump — but Trump started with low approval ratings on the issue, which doesn’t give him much room for error.

The economy is a new problem for Trump. His approval rating on the issue fluctuated during his first term, but it was generally high. About half of Americans approve of Trump’s economic outlook for his first White House term, and he has struggled to accommodate that as a weak point. Americans care more about costs than they did during Trump’s first term, and like Biden, he insists strongly that the US economy is not the problem while a large majority describes it as “poor.”

6 in 10 American adults say Trump has done more to hurt the cost of living during his second term, while only 2 in 10 say he has done more to help. About a quarter said it had no effect.

Views of Trump’s handling of immigration have declined

When Trump entered office, immigration was his strongest issue. It has faded, a troubling sign for Trump, who campaigned on both economic prosperity and a crackdown on illegal immigration.

Only 38% of American adults approve of how Trump is handling immigration, down from 49% in March. The poll was conducted Jan. 8-11, shortly after the death of Renee Goode, who was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis.

But there are signs that Americans are still giving Trump some concessions on immigration issues. Nearly half of American adults say Trump has “gone too far” when it comes to deporting immigrants living in the country illegally, unchanged from April, despite an immigration crackdown that swept across US cities in the second half of the year.

Nearly half of Americans, 45%, say Trump has helped immigration and border security “a lot” or “a little” during his second term. This is one area where Democrats are willing to give Trump some credit. Nearly 2 in 10 Democrats say Trump has helped with the issue, more than the share of Democrats who say he has helped with costs or job creation.

After Trump’s return to foreign policy, most Americans reject his approach

Trump has focused more on foreign policy in his second term, and polls show that most Americans disapprove of his approach.

But like Trump’s overall approval rating, his approach to foreign policy has changed little in his second term, despite sweeping actions including his push to control Greenland and the recent military occupation of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

6 in 10 Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling foreign policy issues, and a majority of Americans, 56%, say Trump has gone “too far” in using the U.S. military to intervene in other countries.

Trump’s continued focus on world issues may be a liability given the “America First” platform he runs and its sharp contrast with Americans’ growing concern over domestic costs. But it may also be difficult to change opinion on the issue — if Trump takes more dramatic steps in the coming months.

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The AP-NORC survey of 1,203 adults was conducted Jan. 8-11 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.