2018 US Politics - President Trump’s Approval Rating Sits at 48% (May 4)

This week’s Reuters/Ipsos Core Political release presents something of an outlier of our trend. Every series of polls has the occasional outlier and in our opinion this is one. So, while we are reporting the findings in the interest of transparency, we will not be announcing the start of a new trend until we have more data to validate this pattern.

The Reuters/Ipsos Core Political poll has a significant realignment this week across a number of metrics. Most pronounced is President Trump’s approval rating which currently sits at 48% with all Americans. His number with registered voters is essentially the same at 49%. Corresponding with Trump’s stronger approval rating, evaluations of his job performance across the board are stronger this week from 57% approving of his handling of the economy to 44% approving of the way he treats people like them. On the generic congressional ballot, our current poll shows a +5-point advantage for Democrats, the smallest lead we’ve seen in recent weeks.
Americans also report being more happy with the direction of the country in this week’s poll, currently 40% say we are going in the right direction. Public perceptions of the main problems facing America continues to be diffuse, with healthcare (17%), terrorism (14%), immigration (11%), and the economy (11%) all snagging share of attention.

Speaking of attention, currently EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, is the front runner in this week’s Reuters/Ipsos Wh’Exit poll at 20%, which asks Americans who they believe will be the next to be fired or resign from the Trump administration. He’s followed by perennial leader, Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, at 17%.

These are findings from an Ipsos poll conducted for Thomson Reuters April 27-May 1, 2018. For the survey, a sample of 1,548 Americans, including 556 Democrats, 579 Republicans, 163 Independents ages 18+ were interviewed online.