Donald Trump made a lot of promises on the campaign trail in 2024. More than one year into his presidency — which has been characterised by a sweeping climate change policy shift, tariff chaos, the release of the Epstein files, the capture of the Venezuelan president, the fatal shooting of Americans by immigration agents, the killing of Iran’s supreme leader and more — how closely has he stuck to them?
Using a range of data sources, The Times is tracking the president’s approval rating throughout his time in office. See the latest graphs, tables, charts and opinion poll trackers below:
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Donald Trump’s latest approval rating
Dire personal approval ratings for most of the past four years were no impediment to Trump getting re-elected: he won the popular vote despite most Americans having an unfavourable view of him.
Immediately after the election, many had a slightly more positive view of Trump. Most terms begin with a “honeymoon” period when voters are broadly happy with the president’s performance. This ended for Trump after he began imposing sweeping tariffs on America’s trading partners from February 2025. At this stage of their presidencies, Barack Obama and Joe Biden held a superior favourability score over Trump, according to Gallup. Throughout the campaign, Trump suggested to his “America-first” base that he would avoid engaging in unpopular foreign wars. In his inaugural address, he said he would measure success “not only by the battles we win but also by the wars that we end — and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into”. • What can Trump do to get the Strait of Hormuz reopened? To date, Americans have been largely unimpressed with his handling of foreign policy and a YouGov poll in January suggested that many felt Trump should spend more time on the economy. How do Americans feel about his attack on Iran? A snap poll by Ipsos over the first weekend of strikes suggested that only 27 per cent supported the attacks, with 43 per cent opposed. Although support is stronger among voters for his party, some 13 per cent of Republicans opposed the strikes. In a separate question, 56 per cent of all voters said the president used “too much” military force. Throughout most of his first term in office, the American public approved of Trump’s handling of the economy, particularly during the Covid pandemic. • Who will win the 2026 midterm elections? Polls and predictions The economy was central to Trump’s pitch to voters in 2024. However, net approval of his handling of it has fallen far from the plus 12 recorded in January 2025. How do presidents measure success? For Trump, the performance of big business has always been part of his sell. The S&P 500, which lists the stock prices of 500 of the largest companies on US exchanges, is one way to measure this. Here is Trump’s first year back in office compared with the equivalent period of his predecessors’ terms… …and here is how the index is performing now: Another way of measuring stock market sentiment is the Vix, sometimes known as the “fear index”, which measures volatility. After Trump’s tariff “liberation day”, the index rose to levels not seen since the Covid pandemic and the financial crisis. Today, it is much more stable. Just as prominent in Trump’s campaign was his push on cryptocurrencies: he vowed to make the US the “crypto capital of the planet”. Since taking office he has issued orders that revoke cryptocurrency regulations and has confirmed plans for a US crypto reserve. The price of bitcoin, the most common cryptocurrency, is actually lower than it was when Trump took office after a dramatic fall at the start of 2026. In his first few weeks in office, Trump issued more than 50 executive orders, including on “emergency price relief” to tackle inflation, officially recognising only two genders and ordering the completion of the southern border wall. Trump has been issuing more orders at a faster pace than any president in living memory — and signed more in his first year than in his entire first term. You can view a full list of them in the table below: The consumer price index measure of annual inflation peaked at 9.1 per cent under Biden in June 2022 but has since fallen and has been stable below 3 per cent under Trump. Trump has made tackling illegal immigration a key measure of his presidency, declaring a national emergency on the southern border on his first day in office and ordering the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to increase deportations. It led to an immediate fall in immigration. Net migration for unauthorised arrivals has been negative since early 2025. The rush to deport has involved some controversial cases. Families of men flown to a high-security jail in El Salvador said they received no chance to appeal and were mistakenly identified as criminal gang members. ICE raids have also catalysed anti-deportation protests across the country. The fatal shooting on January 7 of Renee Nicole Good, 37, by an officer in Minneapolis prompted protests, including one in which Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse, was shot and killed by a federal agent on January 24. This article was last updated on March 16, 2026Attacking Iran
Economy
Stock market indexCrypto and the price of bitcoin
Executive orders
US inflationDeportations and immigration
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