A recent University of Massachusetts Amherst Poll found that President Donald Trump’s approval rating has fallen to 33%, the lowest reported of his second presidential term. In addition, 53% of Americans say they strongly disapprove of his performance.
The UMass Poll conducted its latest national survey from Friday, March 20 to Wednesday, March 25, where it collected public opinions on Trump’s overall performance, issue-specific performances, voter regret and America’s 250th anniversary, among others. The UMass Poll uses a representative sample from YouGov, a data analytics group that draws a sample from a list of registered users and creates a nationally representative sample.
The intensity of single-issue opinions may explain where the strikingly low approval rates may be coming from, since someone that has a strong disapproval in one area generally may be more likely to disapprove of Trump’s overall performance as president.
A major part of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign was immigration policy. In a Wisconsin campaign rally in June 2024, Trump said, “We’re going to get them out as fast as we can. We’re going to have the largest deportation. We have no choice.”
According to the UMass Poll results, 60% of Americans said that Trump is not handling immigration well. However, there is a firm disapproval within this, as 51% of Americans believe he is handling immigration “not well at all” and 9% believe he is not handling immigration well.
The disparities between those who strongly disapproved of Trump’s performance and those who somewhat disapproved were a trend throughout the topic of immigration. 40% of Americans strongly disapprove of how Trump has handled the deportation of undocumented immigrants, while only 14% somewhat disapprove.
There is a 31-point gap between Americans who strongly disapprove (45%) and those who somewhat disapprove (14%) of how Trump has handled the investigation of the killing of American citizens by ICE officers.
There is also a 24-point gap between the number of Americans who strongly disapprove (42%) of how Trump has handled protests against his immigration policies and those who somewhat disapprove (18%).
The largest gap between those that approved how Trump is handling immigration is a nine-point gap between those that strongly approve (28%) how he is handling the deportation of undocumented immigrants and those that somewhat approve (19%). The firm disapproval of how Trump is handling immigration in comparison to the soft approval indicates there is varying levels of intensity within these opinions, and that people, on average, feel particularly negative about how Trump is handling immigration.
52% of Americans said that Trump has not handled the recent military conflict with Iran well “at all,” and 11% said he has not handled it “too well.” 16% said he has handled it very well, and 13% said he has handled it somewhat well. These significantly varying levels of intensity contribute to the 33% overall approval rating.
Even though there were no questions that measured the intensity of opinions for topics such as surrounding inflation, there were questions that provided some answers on how Americans feel about Trump’s performance. In a press conference held in New Jersey in Aug. 2024, Trump claimed, “When I win, I will immediately bring prices down on day one.”
The UMass Poll reported that 77% of Americans said they witnessed an increase in the price of groceries in the last few months. 91% said the same for gas prices and 80% said the same for the price of utilities such as natural gas, electricity, oil and water. 53% said they blame this rise in the prices of goods and services on Trump.
While Trump’s approval rating has fallen across all demographics since April 2025, there are certain groups he has lost a particularly large amount of support from. According to a UMass Poll from April 2025, Trump’s presidential approval rating from those with a high school diploma or less was 48%. In the most recent UMass Poll, the approval rating among this same demographic fell to 33%.
In terms of party identification, Trump has also lost a significant amount of support from Independents. In April 2025, his presidential approval rating from independents was 31%, and it fell to 18% in March 2026. Further, his approval rating from African Americans was 28% in April 2025, and it fell all the way to 8% in the recent poll.
With large decreases in support across several demographic groups, there has been expressed voter regret. According to the UMass Poll, in April 2025, 74% of those that voted for Trump in the 2024 presidential election said they felt very confident they made the right choice voting for Trump. This number fell to 69% in July 2025 before falling to 62% in March 2026.
While the overall approval rating is the lowest reported of his second term so far, the UMass Poll is one of many opinion polls that has recorded a downward trend in Trump’s approval rating since the 2024 election. The extreme negativity that Americans have expressed across several single-issue performances provide insight as to exactly where people believe he needs to improve.
Madison Keddy can be reached at [email protected].
