Some 47% of Americans approved of Donald Trump's presidency as he returned to the White House this week, a sign of a polarized nation following the Republican's victory in November, a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Tuesday found.
The two-day survey, conducted in the hours following President Trump's inauguration on Monday, showed his popularity higher than it was throughout most of his 2017-2021 term.
But the poll also showed that Americans were already sour on some of his first moves. Some 58% of respondents said that Trump should not pardon all people convicted of crimes during the Jan 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump essentially did just that -- pardoning most of the nearly 1,600 people charged with joining the siege, while ending the sentences of 14 leaders of the siege -- hours into his second term in office, while the poll was being conducted.
Just 29% of respondents approved of how Trump was handling perceived politicization of the justice system. Trump accused his predecessor, Joe Biden, of bending the scales of justice with prosecutions meant to stop Trump from returning to office, charges that the Democrat has denied. He has also said he may use the justice system to seek retribution against his political rivals.
Respondents looked more warmly on Trump's approach to other issues. Some 46% of respondents approved of his job handling immigration, an issue many Americans would like to see as the new administration's top priority.
Some 58% of respondents agreed with a statement that the United States should "dramatically reduce the number of migrants allowed to claim asylum at the border," signaling apparent support for Trump's early actions in office to suspend a procedure allowing asylum applications at the U.S. border. Trump also declared illegal immigration a national emergency and took steps to restrict citizenship for children born on U.S. soil.
Trump won the 2024 election by beating Democrat Kamala Harris 312 to 226 in the U.S. Electoral College, though he got just 49.8% of the national popular vote to Harris' 48.3%.
The poll results amount to something of a reset for Trump, who started his first presidential term with 43% approval - a figure that rose to 49% by the end of January 2017 - but ended with 34% approving of his performance after the Capitol siege, an attempt to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
Trump's rating was low by historical standards, said Jacob Rubashkin, a political analyst at Inside Elections. U.S. presidents typically start their term with approval ratings above 50%. “Yes, it's positive for Trump, but it's roughly in line with what we saw in the first term – a historically low approval rating at the outset of a presidency,” Rubashkin said.
Much like Biden, who left office on Monday, Trump's popularity held below 45% for most of his first term, dipping to as low as 33% in December 2017. Both leaders failed to persistently win the approval of people outside their parties and in the latest survey, 91% of Republicans approved of Trump's leadership and 84% of Democrats rejected it.
Biden started his presidency with 55% approval but the rating quickly turned downward. It bottomed out at 35% on the eve of the November election, with the Democrat's unpopularity widely seen as a boost for Trump's election campaign.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll, which was conducted online, surveyed 1,077 U.S. adults and had a margin of error of about 4 percentage points in each direction.
© Thomson Reuters 2025.
52 Comments
TaiwanIsNotChina
Yeah, surprise surprise, but people don't consider police assaulters to be very fine people.
bass4funk
As well as as rioters burning down police stations and burning down businesses and looting them.
wallace
The Capitol Police Chief strongly disagreed with the pardons.
lincolnman
So a felon convicted on 34 counts pardons another 1600 felons that put 140 Capital Police Officers in the hospital and caused millions in property damage, let alone damage to our national reputation....
And these miscreants have the gall to say they're the "Law and Order" party?
They're criminal fascists - pure and simple...
These pardons and Musk's Nazi salute proves it...
wallace
The majority of Americans 58% disagree with the pardons.
wallace
Stand down, stand by boys.
bass4funk
Who? Which polled, how many of those polled were conservatives or supporters of the President, men vs Women? You just mentioned 58% were polled, break it down
At this point, the left don’t have neither leadership nor a message other than more income redistribution and wokeism, if they think their future is in that, lol, go for it.
iknowall
Great show of power in pardoning the January 6 protesters--citizens who actually love their country.
wallace
Trump starts a new term with 47% approval.
58% of Americans disagree with the pardons
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-starts-new-term-with-47-approval-jan-6-pardons-unpopular-reutersipsos-poll-2025-01-21/
bass4funk
It doesn’t give a breakdown of who, which side of the political aisle, men vs women, nothing. I’ll take that with a grain of salt. Anyway, it’s going to happen and it’s a good thing and you know what, the country will be ok.
iknowall
Trump had great ratings in the election too. Just decimated Harris. The election was over by 7pm that night. A really tough day for the Democrats.
And he is taking questions live from the media right now.
Trump has appeared live in front of the media more in the last day and a half than Biden did in 4 years.
The US and the world are a safer place since yesterday,
Fighto!
The violent thugs should not have been pardoned.
The ones viciously assaulting the security on Jan 6 should have gotten the Ashli Babbitt treatment - that infamous Darwin Award winner.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Not a federal government issue.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Is he giving another one of his helicopter press conferences?
bass4funk
They are still law enforcement officers
TaiwanIsNotChina
Basically "I don't agree with the poll so it must not be accurate"
They are smart not to have a leader until one emerges from the primary. The platform will be Ending Martial Law in America and Recovering from Trump's Defeats which will be quite popular by that point.
asdfgtr
Hundreds of people that violently assaulted and maimed police officers are now "pardoned" and released from prison.
Hear ex-Capitol officer's message to Trump voters after Trump pardoned men who attacked him:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwSuAH7B9-Y&ab_channel=CNN
kurisupisu
Trump can pardon whomever he likes!
Dont like it ?
That’s tough as the people gave him a landslide victory!
asdfgtr
Former District of Columbia police officer Michael Fanone, who was attacked by rioters on Jan. 6, 2021, at the Capitol:
“I have been betrayed by my country, and I’ve been betrayed by those that supported Donald Trump....
Tonight, six individuals who assaulted me, as I did my job on Jan. 6, as did hundreds of other law enforcement officers, will now walk free....
“I think that Republican Party owns a monopoly on hypocrisy when it comes to their supposed support of law enforcement.......the leader of the Republican Party pardoned hundreds of violent cop assaulters,”
asdfgtr
@kurisupisu
DUDE! HELL YEAH!!!!!!!!!!
Tokyo Guy
He'l just post on Truth Social that his approval rating is 102% and they'll all believe it.
asdfgtr
Craig Sicknick, whose brother, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, was assaulted during the riot and died of multiple strokes the next day, called Trump "pure evil" on Tuesday.
"The man who killed my brother is now president," he told Reuters.
"My brother died in vain. Everything he did to try to protect the country, to protect the Capitol - why did he bother?" Sicknick said. "What Trump did is despicable, and it proves that the United States no longer has anything that resembles a justice system."
browny1
One Felon's friend, is another Friend's felon.
I didn't think he'd really free almost the lot carte blanche.
I was sure he'd select a number of the really violent ones - 100s - to keep locked up, just to show a bit of empathy for and camaraderie with the ones in blue.
But no.
Freedom fighters must be free.
LOL.
theFu
Nobody wants hundreds of dangerous criminals released on their streets. Trump just did - more danger in those people than in all the illegal immigrants who crossed the border under his 1st term.
wallace
The UK is usually the first foreign visit of a new president. During his first term, he went to Saudi Arabia first because they purchased $450 billion of weapons. I guess the first country visit will be the highest bidder.
Blacklabel
if he can get investments into our country just by going somewhere first, absolutely.
wallace
In his speeches, there was no mention of any allies.
Seth Majer
Your sob stories and crocodile tears over them are part of the reason why your party lost the election by a landslide. Strangely enough, people care about being able to afford a meal on their table, a roof over their head, going to and from places safely and their tax money going towards their country instead of foreign countries and illegal immigrants.
Tokyo Guy
The UK is usually the first foreign visit of a new president. During his first term, he went to Saudi Arabia first because they purchased $450 billion of weapons. I guess the first country visit will be the highest bidder.
As I recall, last time he went on a state visit to the UK, they had made a huge balloon representing him as a baby in a diaper. It was wonderful. I hope they make another one for when he pollutes the poor UK with his presence.
bass4funk
I don’t think anyone in the US remembers that one.
The Brits can do whatever they want in their country, fine with me.
JJE
Just wait till the economy recovers, people have more money in their pockets etc.
iknowall
That was a HUGE cake that Trump used a sword to slice, after dancing to the YMCA song.
Oh wait--I thought he was going to be a dictator???
plasticmonkey
You only like polls which favor Trump.
This one must be rigged. A real poll would find that Trump has an 87% approval rating, and rising fast!
bass4funk
No, I like reputable polls that do breakdowns like Rasmussen
Well, that’s true, but they do have a breakdown
https://youtu.be/NIOsrxzJjSQ?si=FlV7hkQCkbORE7di
iknowall
Nobody wants hundreds of dangerous criminals released on their streets.
One of the people Trump pardoned was arrested J6 for "touching a table".
Tokyo Guy
I don’t think anyone in the US remembers that one.
I'm from the US, and I do. It was great. I have a number of friends from the UK and you have no idea how absolutely despised Trump is over there. They would never have made a big diaper baby balloon for any other president, even if they disapproved of that president's politics. They just know scum when they see it.
The Brits can do whatever they want in their country, fine with me.
Well isn't that magnanimous. I'll pass on your permission to my acquaintances there. Maybe they can convey it to the government.
Blacklabel
Biden pardoned 2500 crackheads and drug dealers.
nobody “wanted” that either.
yeah one of the guys pardoned just carried a lectern around inside.
Stewart Gale
It just shows how low certain people’s moral compasses have fallen that they are fine with the pardon and release of violent criminals who attacked police officers and tried to attack democracy.
It’s both staggering and depressing that presumably educated people, like Bass4funk and Blacklabel have sunk this low. I despair at and for them.
plasticmonkey
lol
plasticmonkey
Nonviolent drug offenders.
Blacklabel
Oh?
“ Two men convicted of the murder of a Virginia police officer were part of President Joe Biden's wide-reaching clemency of nearly 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses.”
Eat the left
Let me guess. Hang them all?
Blacklabel
Why do people insist on listing things together that are not the same when they try to make a point?
all of these things are quite different.
JJE
Breaking - Trump just pardoned Ross Ulbricht (of Silk Road).
Zaphod
JJE
That one I did not expect. It is an interesting moral dilemma: Is a virtual, as opposed to real-life, murder plot actually a crime? I am agnostic on that.
Zaphod
wallace
Do not know who selected the group, but it is safe to say that those 58% are the ones who took their information only from the biased legacy media.
Cephus
"Trump starts new term with 47% approval; Jan 6 pardons unpopular, poll finds."
Who cares whether the President start with 100 or zero percent approval? As long as the presidential office is not a beauty contest the only approval which matters is the mandate or approved by voters on November 5th. Anything else is noise!.
stormcrow
47%???
It won’t last for long.
bass4funk
Who gets to determine who scum is, one person may look at someone or something as scum, and the other person might look at it as something good or beneficial. I think people are under the impression that many Americans care what other people think about us in other countries and I don’t think so, I think the majority of Americans really don’t care, if we say things about other people in other nations, they wouldn’t care as well, so it goes both ways, if the Brits want to make fun of Trump, they can do that all day, it’s our country, makes sense to me. In the end, it doesn’t change the politics over here or how we feel about our president.
wallace
You could ask Reuters, the publisher of the article.
Stewart Gale
Zaphod,
Fake media coverage? What on earth are you talking about?
So, all the video footage I saw of rioters attacking police officers was somehow staged by “the mass media”?
This defence you guys have of anything that doesn’t suit your narrative as being “fake news” is such a childish and pathetic position to take.
In fact, thats an insult to children. Most 7 years old are probably beyond behaving like that.
wallace
Zaphod
wallace
The majority of Americans 58% disagree with the pardons.
Why do you make daily comments on a site using legacy media articles? A puzzle to me.