President Donald Trump isn’t exactly popular at the moment, at home and abroad.
In 2021, he left the Oval Office after his first term with the worst first-term approval rating ever recorded, at just 34%.
He re-entered the White House in January with a higher approval rating, at 52% – but that rate began dipping by early February.
Sweeping federal cuts in early February accelerated his disapproval rating as hundreds of thousands of employees were threatened with dismissal.
But March 11 was the date that his disapproval rating topped that of his approval rating – and within days, 49% of those surveyed didn’t approve of the Commander-in-Chief.
March 11 was the day Trump doubled down on tariffs on Canada’s steel and aluminium and called for the country to be the US’s 51st state.
In retaliation, Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Monday announced a 25% tariff on Canadian electricity into Michigan, Minnesota and New York – sparking outcry from Americans.
The stock market also took a tumble that day, dropping more than 500 points as investors’ concerns around a possible recession heightened.
March 11 may have been the tipping point for Trump’s approval to dip, but another key date was April 2 – his so-called ‘Liberation Day’.
His disapproval rating jumped to 50% then, but April hasn’t been kind to the leader – as of April 23, his disapproval rating is 52%, with an approval rating of just 44%.
Despite this dip, his support among Republican voters remains strong, according to the New York Times. Most who expressed new disapproval with Trump were independent voters.
But Trump’s first few months back in office haven’t been smooth – from war plans leaked in a group chat with journalists to a fiery blow-up with a major leader in the White House, 2025 has been memorable so far.
Just days ago, it was revealed that US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth turned those infamous Signal leaks into a family affair, according to claims he shared war plans with his wife and brother.
‘Nobody was texting war plans’, Hegseth said last month, after sharing details of a military operation against Houthi rebels before and while it was in progress.
He had used the Signal messaging app to share the time, weapons and target with Donald Trump’s top security officials and – inadvertently – a journalist.
It turns out that wasn’t the only Signal group chat where Hegseth shared details of the upcoming airstrikes in Yemen, the New York Times reported.
And yesterday, Trump claimed the US was entitled to deport people without a fair trial after facing fierce criticism for a Maryland man who was deported to El Salvador, without being given a hearing.
This week, when asked by a reporter if he was pleased with the rate of deportations, Trump said: ‘You can’t have a trial for all of these people.
‘Look, we are getting some very bad people, killers, murderers, drug dealers, really bad people, the mentally ill, the mentally insane, they emptied out insane asylums into our country, we’re getting them out.
‘And a judge can’t say: ‘No, you have to have a trial,’” Trump claimed.
‘No, we are going to have a very dangerous country if we are not allowed to do what we are entitled to do.’
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