By Jason Lange and James Oliphant
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Americans have a dim view of some of President Donald Trump’s early barrage of executive orders, including his attempt to do away with so-called birthright citizenship and his decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
Since taking office on Jan. 20, the Republican president has moved quickly to crack down on immigration and scale back the size of government, efforts that respondents to the three-day poll that closed on Sunday look on more favorably.
Overall, the poll showed 45% of Americans approve of Trump’s performance as president, down slightly from 47% in a Jan. 20-21 poll. The share who disapproved was slightly larger at 46%, an increase from 39% in the prior poll.
The poll had a margin of error of about 4 percentage points.
“While it does seem Trump is getting a honeymoon to some extent, his numbers are still not impressive by historical standards,” said Kyle Kondik, an analyst with the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
During Trump’s first term, his approval rating hit as high as 49% during his first weeks in office but he closed out his term at 34% approval following the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.
It may be too early to evaluate whether Trump is squandering his political capital by focusing on issues where he is not aligned with the public, Kondik said. But the poll shows that many of his early actions have been greeted warmly only by his hardcore base of supporters.
Voters more generally remain deeply concerned about the high price of food, housing and other necessities, the poll found.
Most Americans opposed ending the nation’s longstanding practice of granting citizenship to children born in the U.S. even if neither parent has legal immigration status, the poll found. Some 59% of respondents – including 89% of Democrats and 36% of Republicans – said they opposed ending birthright citizenship.
A federal judge last week temporarily blocked the Trump administration from making changes to birthright citizenship, but the White House has vowed to fight on.
LITTLE SUPPORT FOR ‘GULF OF AMERICA’
Seventy percent of respondents oppose renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, an action Trump ordered on his first day in office. Only 25% of respondents supported the idea, with the rest unsure.
Some 59% of respondents, including 30% of Republicans, opposed Trump’s moves to end federal efforts to promote the hiring of women and members of racial minority groups. When asked specifically about Trump’s order to close all federal diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, offices, respondents were more evenly divided, with 51% opposed and 44% in favor, largely along partisan lines.
Support for expanding fossil fuel drilling – another early policy change in the new administration – was highly concentrated in Trump’s party, with 76% of Republicans backing the easing of drilling restrictions and 81% of Democrats opposing it. Some 59% of respondents said they opposed the United States pulling out of the Paris climate accords.
Public views also split along partisan lines for billionaire businessman Elon Musk, one of Trump’s most prominent allies. While 75% of Republicans in the survey said they had a favorable view of Musk, 90% of Democrats said they had an unfavorable view.
One possible source of concern for Trump’s political team could be the still overwhelming sense that rising prices remain untamed. Some 50% of poll respondents said the country was on the wrong track when it came to the cost of living, compared to 25% who said it was moving in the right direction. The rest said they weren’t sure or didn’t answer the question.
SUPPORT ON IMMIGRATION, HIRING FREEZE
There were positive indicators for Trump, as well.
Some 48% Americans approve of Trump’s approach on immigration, compared to 41% who disapprove. And the poll showed Trump having significant levels of support on the hiring freeze he ordered at most federal offices, with 49% of respondents backing a freeze, including 80% of Republicans and 43% of Democrats.
Kondik said that Trump ultimately may be judged by the public on big-picture issues such as the economy and immigration and that opposition to smaller-scale policy measures may not be damaging.
“Trump was elected in large part because voters tended to side with him on the economy and immigration. To the extent he is viewed as doing positive things on that, it’s probably good for him,” Kondik said.
But, he added, if voters in the coming months perceive Trump’s immigration crackdown or his government downsizing efforts to be overly harsh, that could change.
Trump won’t be on the ballot again, but the backlash could be felt by congressional Republicans running for re-election next year, he said.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll, which was conducted online and nationwide over Jan. 24-26, surveyed 1,034 adults.
(Reporting by Jason Lange and James Oliphant; Editing by Scott Malone and Deepa Babington)
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