HAMDEN – Public opinion of President Donald Trump is more favorable in 2025 than it was in 2017 when he started his first presidential term, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll.
Today, 46% of voters approve of the job Trump is doing, while 43% disapprove and 11% did not offer an opinion. In late January 2017, 36% of voters approved of the job he was doing, while 44% disapproved and 19% did not offer an opinion.
The latest poll doesn’t consider the president’s latest Office of Management and Budget memo calling for a pause on a federal funding that was issued Monday night. The poll of 1,019 self-identified registered voters nationwide were surveyed from Jan. 23-27 with a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points.
A majority of voters (54%) say they are generally optimistic about the next four years with Trump as president, while 42% are generally pessimistic. These results are nearly identical to Quinnipiac University’s Jan. 26, 2017 poll conducted following Trump’s first inauguration.
Sending U.S. troops to southern border
Voters, 60%-36% approve of sending U.S. troops to the southern border with Mexico to enforce border security.
Forty-four percent of voters support deporting all undocumented immigrants and sending them back to their home countries, while 39% only support deporting undocumented immigrants convicted of violent crimes, and 6% oppose both scenarios, with 10% not offering an opinion.
“The huge deployment of boots on the ground is not to a dicey, far away war theater, but to the American border. And a majority of voters are just fine with that,” said Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy.
Elon Musk role in administration
By a count of 53%–39% disapprove of tech billionaire Elon Musk playing a prominent role in the Trump administration. The findings are similar to Quinnipiac University’s December poll when 53% of voters disapproved of his role.
Other key findings
Voters, 57%-37% disapprove of Trump’s actions when he pardoned or commuted the sentences of more than 1,500 people who were involved in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, including some convicted of violent acts.
Sixty-percent of voters disapprove of former President Biden issuing preemptive pardons for five members of his family who haven’t been charged with any crimes.
Voters are divided on Biden’s other preemptive pardons for some people who President Trump had targeted for retaliation, with 44% disapproving, 42% approving, and 14% not offering an opinion.
