Trump Ratings and U.S. Mood Stay Tepid in August

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new Gallup poll finds 40% of Americans approving of President Donald Trump’s overall job performance, in line with support for him in June and July after registering 43% or higher in the first five months of the year.

Similar percentages of Americans in the Aug. 1-20 survey back Trump’s performance on the economy (37%) and foreign affairs (39%). Neither rating has changed meaningfully over the past month, but each is five percentage points below its high point in February.

Education Rating Debuts at 38%

Meanwhile, as students return to classrooms across the country, 38% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s handling of education, including 41% of parents of children attending K-12 school. This is Gallup’s first rating of Trump on education during his second term.

Despite taking strong steps this year to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and close the U.S. Department of Education, Trump’s rating on education is little different from three Gallup readings taken during his first term, when they ranged from 35% to 44%.

In fact, of the four job approval ratings Gallup measured in August, Trump’s economy rating is the furthest from his first term. His current 37% approval rating on the economy is 15 points below his average of 52% on that issue from 2017 to 2020.

Partisan Differences in Rating Trump at Peak Level

Ninety-three percent of Republicans approve of Trump’s overall job performance, compared with just 1% of Democrats, a 92-point gap. This ties the record for the largest partisan divide in Gallup’s presidential approval trends, first recorded in October 2020, right before the 2020 election.

The 1% of Democrats approving of Trump today matches their lowest approval rating for any Republican president, tying the figure recorded in June 2025. While strikingly low, this is on par with Democrats’ 2% approval rating of Trump in June 2020 and July 2025 and similar to their 3% ratings of George W. Bush in 2008 during the global financial crisis.

For comparison, Republicans’ lowest approval for any Democratic president was 2% for Joe Biden in several 2023-2024 polls.

Today’s partisan gaps in approval of Trump on the economy and foreign affairs are nearly as large as is seen for his overall rating, while the gap for his handling of education is a bit smaller. This is mainly owing to Republicans’ slightly lower approval of Trump on that issue, at 88%.

Economic Confidence Still Negative on Balance

Trump’s subdued approval rating on the economy reflects Americans’ continued disenchantment with U.S. economic conditions. While views had improved somewhat in May and June, they have since worsened and are now only slightly better than they were in October, just before Trump was elected.

This is mainly seen in the trend in Americans’ belief that current economic conditions are “poor.” While close to half of Americans rated the economy as poor in October, just before the election, that fell to 40% in January and 31% in June, but it has since climbed back to 38%. Meanwhile, 20% to 29% of Americans during this period have described conditions as “excellent” or “good,” while the percentage viewing economic conditions as “only fair” has ranged from 29% to 46%.

Americans’ outlook for the economy has been less variable, with the percentage saying it’s “getting better” ranging between 32% and 38% since October.

Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index, which takes into account evaluations of current economic conditions and perceptions of the economy’s direction, is at -20 in August, a bit less negative than the -26 measured in October and -22 in April — but not to the point seen in June, when it rose to -14. The index has a theoretical range of -100 to +100.

Separately, the new poll finds 54% of Americans saying it’s a bad time to find a quality job, slightly improved from the 58% perceiving this in April but still worse than sentiment on the eve of Trump’s inauguration in January, when 48% said it was a good time and 45% a bad time. This year’s ratings contrast with figures seen in 2022 and 2023, when solid majorities of Americans were optimistic about the job market amid low unemployment once the U.S. economy began recovering from the pandemic.

U.S. Satisfaction Remains in Summer Slump, Highly Polarized

Similar to the trend in economic confidence, the 31% of Americans who currently say they are satisfied with the direction of the country is higher than the 26% recorded in late October, as well as the average 22% throughout Biden’s presidency. However, it has waned after reaching 38% in May, the highest of Trump’s second term.

Partisanship is also at a peak on this metric, with 76% of Republicans saying they are satisfied with the direction of the country versus less than 1% of Democrats. The resulting 76-point gap is the highest Gallup has recorded on this measure, although not substantially different from a 75-point gap in May and 74 points in March and July. Before this year, the parties had differed by more than 70 points on satisfaction only once, in October 2004 before that year’s presidential election. Independents’ mood today is closer to Democrats’ than Republicans’, with 25% saying they are satisfied.

Republicans were essentially as dissatisfied with the country’s direction in July 2024 as Democrats are today. At that time, 1% of Republicans were satisfied and 97% dissatisfied. But the partisan gap in satisfaction then was only 35 points because just 36% of Democrats were also satisfied; 62% were dissatisfied.

Bottom Line

Trump’s job approval rating has settled at 40%, held up by near-unanimous Republican support that is offsetting a near-total absence of Democratic support and weak support from independents. Similar partisan differences are seen in Americans’ satisfaction with the direction of the country, along with record gaps in ratings of Congress and the Supreme Court in July, making the country more polarized than previously seen in modern polling.

The similarity between Trump’s overall job approval rating and his rating on the economy is more in line with how the two metrics typically relate for presidents than was the case during Trump’s first term. In those years, particularly between 2017 and 2019, his job approval rating rarely exceeded 43% despite majorities of Americans frequently approving of his handling of the economy. While Americans’ evaluations of the economy were consistently positive in that period, Trump’s detractors were likely prioritizing other issues when rating him overall.

After improving this spring, Americans’ assessment of the economy has worsened again, returning to its level in the first quarter. This could reflect public frustration with ongoing high prices, overshadowing positive news about the stock market and second-quarter GDP growth. Although the inflation rate has been below 3% since Trump took office, prices remain elevated following the high inflation that occurred under the previous administration and that Trump campaigned on addressing. Americans’ concerns about the job market could also be dampening their economic mood.

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