Poll position: Where Donald Trump stands with Americans 100 days into his second presidency
President Trump stands at 44% approval and 55% disapproval in the latest Fox News national poll
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Donald Trump is giving himself a big thumbs-up when it comes to his job performance during his second tour of duty in the White House.
"I think we're doing really well," Trump told reporters last week.
The president, as he neared the 100-day mark into his second administration, predicted that "we're going to be the strongest that we've ever been as a nation."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Trump has aggressively asserted executive authority in his second term, overturning long-standing government policy and making major cuts to the federal workforce through an avalanche of sweeping and controversial executive orders and actions – with some aimed at addressing grievances he has held since his first term.
HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS REPORTING AND ANALYSIS ON TRUMP'S FIRST 100 DAYS BACK IN OFFICE
President Donald Trump, as of Thursday morning, April 24, 2025, had signed 137 executive orders since returning to office on Jan. 20, 2025. (Getty Images)
However, the latest poll numbers suggest that Americans are not overly thrilled with the job Trump's doing steering the nation.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The president stands at 44% approval and 55% disapproval in the most recent Fox News national poll, which was conducted April 18-21.
The president's numbers are also underwater in polls released the past few days by ABC News/Washington Post (42% approval-55% disapproval), New York Times/Siena College (42%-54%), CNN (43%-57%), Reuters/Ipsos (42%-53%), Pew Research (40%-59%), and AP/NORC (39%-59%)
Most, but not all, of the most recent national public opinion surveys indicate Trump's approval ratings in negative territory, which is a slide from the president's poll position when he started his second tour of duty in the White House.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CLICK HERE TO SEE WHERE TRUMP STANDS IN THE LATEST FOX NEWS NATIONAL POLL
Contributing to the drop are increasing concerns over the economy and inflation, which were pressing issues that kept former President Joe Biden’s approval ratings well below water for most of his presidency. Additionally, Trump's blockbuster tariff announcement earlier this month, which sparked a trade war with some of the nation's top trading partners, triggered a massive sell-off in the financial markets and increased concerns about a recession.
Trump's approval rating on the economy stands at 38% in the Fox News poll, with just a third of respondents approving of the job he is doing handling inflation and tariffs.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Donald Trump, whose approval ratings are in negative territory, according to most, but not all, of the latest national polls, speaks as he signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House, on Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
The Fox News poll is the latest to indicate a massive partisan divide over Trump.
Nearly nine-in-10 Republicans questioned gave the president a thumbs-up, with 90% of Democrats disapproving of the job Trump's doing. Nearly three-quarters of Independents also disapprove of the president's performance in office.
Daron Shaw, who serves as a member of the Fox News Decision Team and is the Republican partner on the Fox News poll, noted "the consolidation of the Republican base."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}TRUMP'S THIRD-TERM TRIAL BALLOON GETS RESOUNDING RESPONSE IN NEW POLL
"The party’s completely solidified behind him," added Shaw, a politics professor and chair at the University of Texas, who pointed out that Trump’s current solid GOP support was not the case at the start of the first term, when he had trouble with some Republicans.
However, Trump's overall approval rating is close to where he stood 100 days into his first term in office, in 2017, when he stood at 45% approval in Fox News polling.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Donald Trump, whose overall approval rating is close to where he stood 100 days into his first term in office in 2017, according to Fox News polling, speaks to reporters on board Air Force One on Saturday, April 12, 2025. (Pool via AP)
So how does Trump stack up against his presidential predecessors?
"John F. Kennedy and Dwight Eisenhower had the highest first-quarter average ratings, with both registering above 70%, while Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan averaged between 60% and 69%. George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, Joe Biden and Bill Clinton had similar average ratings of 55% to 58% in their first quarters," Gallup noted in a poll released two weeks ago on presidential approval ratings.
Gallup highlighted that "Trump is the only president to have sub-50% average approval ratings during a first quarter in office."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}However, enjoying promising approval ratings out of the gate does not guarantee a positive and productive presidency.
Carter's poll numbers sank into negative territory less than two years into his presidency, and he was resoundingly defeated in his bid for re-election in 1980.
President Joe Biden speaks at the State Department during the closing days of his presidency on Jan. 13, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (AP)
Biden stood at 54% approval in Fox News polling 100 days into office, with his numbers hovering in the low-to-mid-50s during the first six months of his single term as president.
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However, Biden's numbers sank into negative territory in the late summer and autumn of 2021, in the wake of his much-criticized handling of the turbulent U.S. exit from Afghanistan and amid soaring inflation and a surge of migrants crossing into the U.S. along the nation's southern border with Mexico.
Biden's approval ratings stayed underwater throughout the rest of his presidency, and he dropped his bid for re-election last summer.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"He just got crippled and never recovered," Shaw said of Biden.