Trump’s Second-Term Slide: 10 Issues Where His Approval Has Cratered
Donald Trump wasn’t exactly beloved during his first term, but his second term is shaping up to be a different story — and not a good one for him. New polling shows him hitting historic lows of unpopularity on issue after issue. We’re counting down the ten biggest drops, starting at number 10 and working our way toward the top.
10. Immigration
Immigration has been Trump’s signature issue since he first ran in 2015, but it’s now working against him. Back in 2018, during his first term, he was 11 points underwater on the issue. Today he’s 17 points underwater — a 6-point slide.
That’s a striking reversal, because immigration is precisely what helped him win a second term. In the 2024 election, voters trusted Trump over Kamala Harris on immigration by a healthy 14-point margin. Now he’s 17 points negative on the same issue. Voters, it seems, liked the tough talk on the campaign trail more than they like the actual policies — think ICE raids and hardline border enforcement — once they’re in effect.
9. Trade and Tariffs
Trump’s protectionist trade agenda is faring even worse. In 2018 he was 13 points underwater on trade and tariffs; now he’s 25 points underwater, nearly double — a 12-point drop.
It’s not just Trump who’s losing ground here; the whole idea of tariffs has lost favor. Right after he won in November 2024, 52% of Americans supported new tariffs on imported goods, versus 48% opposed. Today those numbers have flipped hard: 64% oppose new tariffs, just 36% support them. What was a close, mildly favorable issue has become a roughly 2-to-1 issue against him.
8. Healthcare
Healthcare hasn’t dominated headlines in Trump’s second term the way it did during the 2018 fight over the Affordable Care Act, but it’s quietly become one of his biggest liabilities. He was 18 points underwater on healthcare in 2018; now he’s 31 points underwater — a 13-point drop, and the first issue on this list to break the 30-point mark.
That matters more than it might seem, because healthcare is the single biggest financial worry for Americans right now — bigger than gas prices (8%), housing (14%), or food (18%). Healthcare tops the list at 22%. When an issue that important slides 13 points against you, it’s a real problem.
7. Foreign Policy
Foreign policy shows a similar-sized drop — just over 13 points since 2018 — but the more dramatic number is what’s happened since the 2024 election. Trump entered his second term with a net-positive rating on foreign policy, largely because voters trusted him over Harris by 10 points heading into the election, especially given dissatisfaction with how the Biden administration handled crises in the Middle East and Russia.
Since then, against the backdrop of tensions with Iran and Russia, his numbers have collapsed to 26 points underwater — a 36-point swing since Election Day. Foreign policy has effectively become the defining storyline of the early second term, the way healthcare defined the start of his first.
6. Taxes
Taxes are traditionally a strong issue for Republicans, but not this time. Trump was 10 points underwater on taxes in 2018; now he’s 25 points underwater — a 15-point drop, the largest so far on this list.
The underlying sentiment tells the story: in Trump’s first term, 48% of Americans said their income taxes were about right, while 45% said they were too high. Now, 59% say their taxes are too high, and the “about right” number has fallen sharply — tracking the broader slide in his overall approval rating, which sits at 37%.
What’s coming next
Six down, five to go — and the drops only get bigger from here. The next installment will count down issues five through one, including what looks set to be the largest slide of them all: the economy. Given that pocketbook concerns tend to shape elections more than any other issue, that one’s worth watching closely.
Stay tuned for Part 2.
