Do Voters Think Trump Has Gone Too Far?

Donald Trump has a historically low approval rating for a president in his first 100 days at 42 per cent, down from 48 per cent on the eve of the November 5, 2024 election. But given that Trump was always a polarising figure, his unpopularity was matched and then topped by his popularity as he won all the battleground states.

Now, however, he appears to have lost support on key issues like the economy and immigration. On the former, he has scared voters. On the latter, they seem to think he has gone too far although the majority of Americans approve deportations of illegal immigrants.

The first question about a poll on Trump’s first 100 days in his second administration should be about who has conducted it. Some might see the answer—an establishment liberal newspaper—as a red flag and engage no further. However, the New York Times/Siena College poll is still one of the most accurate and transparent around and uses a national sample of Democrats, Republicans and Independents, in this case with a sample size of 913 voters nationwide polled between April 21 and 24.

The key words that have emerged from the poll are “scary” and “chaotic” and perceptions often overlap.

While 66 per cent think his second term is “chaotic”, 59 per cent go as far as to call it “scary”.

Forty-two per cent however feel Trump 2.0 is “exciting”, which breaks down as 82 per cent among Republicans and only 10 per cent among Democrats.

And 54 per cent overall think he has “gone too far”.

The breakdown on key issues goes somewhat like this: On immigration 51 per cent think he hasn’t done a good job. But the point here is not the deportations per se but the handling of it as well as wrongful deportations like that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The disapproval rating on handling the federal government is 52 per cent, with some heartland Republican voters too saying the administration has gone too far with laying off federal workers.

But the real slide is in Trump’s handling of the economy—55 per cent think he is mishandling the economy. Not only has he not delivered on inflation but his tariff war has resulted in too much uncertainty and even those who voted for him in November say they are disappointed that he is now talking of pain thanks to his trade war. The president, these voters fell, is not getting their real pain.

Finally, on foreign conflicts, the approval rating is only 40 per cent and as low as 35 per cent on the Ukraine war.

In a country of 342 million people, a sample size of 913 is too small but such are survey samples and while such polls have often been prejudiced by a sample bias to begin with and then by voter reluctance to speak their mind—the most recent example being how polls crashed on the election—the New York Times/Siena poll cannot be faulted for the cross-section of the US it has reached out to.

That conclusion can be drawn also from the fact that several heartland states Republicans have said that while they think a president should be able to do what he thinks he needs to, even going beyond rules, they are apprehensive about the constitutional breaches that might have occurred in many cases. While such voters approve of what Trump is doing on the whole, they are uncomfortable about the possible damage to the American system by his modus operandi.

That’s why, on tariffs, diversity, deportations, foreign policy, many feel congressional approval should be necessary. For instance, 61 percent voters, including 33 percent Republicans, said a president should not be able to impose tariffs without authorisation from Congress.

So, it’s Trump’s executive orders that seem to be troubling voters most, across the political divide, although not in the same proportion.

These are early days and these numbers shouldn’t be taken too seriously but they give more than an indication of how the “chaotic” presidency is going down with Americans.

And there is one individual who is doing worse the president. That’s Elon Musk. Only 35 per cent view him favourably and his disapproval rating is high across all divisions of politics, race, gender, age, etc.

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