President Donald Trump’s job approval remains clustered in the high 30s to low 40s as April begins, according to several polls taken around the end of March and the start of April, even after the president’s April 1 televised address aimed at calming public concerns over renewed tensions with Iran and rising fuel prices.
Newly released results show modest variation between surveys. RMG Research put Trump’s approval at 40 percent with 58 percent disapproving. A CNN/SSRS poll found 35 percent approval and 64 percent disapproval. ActiVote reported the highest figure, with 42 percent approving and 55 percent disapproving, while YouGov recorded 35 percent approval and 58 percent disapproval. Taken together, the four polls paint a picture of a president whose overall approval sits roughly between the mid-30s and low-40s at the start of the month.
The surveys also underline the durability of Mr. Trump’s core supporters. Multiple polls show the former president receiving more than 80 percent approval among self-identified MAGA supporters, with some poll findings indicating approval in the 90s among that group. That consolidated base has helped sustain his overall numbers even as broader public sentiment remains lukewarm.
The recent polling came against a backdrop of heightened international tensions and economic worries that the White House has sought to address. Trump used his April 1 remarks to reassure Americans amid a spike in inflammatory rhetoric with Iran; energy markets and analysts have also pointed to rising oil and gasoline prices this week, adding a domestic economic strain that can quickly influence public approval. Those developments have kept the administration’s handling of foreign policy and the economy in the headlines while pollsters take the public’s temperature.
Pollsters caution that approval ratings are snapshots sensitive to timing, question wording and sample composition. The surveys cited were conducted in a narrow window around late March and early April, and margins of error and methodological differences account for some of the spread in the figures. Historical perspective offers further context: while Mr. Trump’s numbers are below majority approval, they are far from the record low recorded by President Harry Truman, whose approval fell to 22 percent in February 1952.
As events in the Middle East and fluctuations in fuel costs develop, approval ratings could shift again. For now, the available polling suggests a partisan-solidified presidency with a broadly divided national electorate, a dynamic that policymakers and campaign strategists will be watching closely in the weeks ahead.