Name: Donald Trump marks 100 days of second term | BBC News
Uploaded: 2025-04-29T16:42:34.000Z
Duration: 5 min 45 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Let's talk a little bit more about the 100 days we've seen since Donald Trump returned to the White House.

It came, that return, with the help of voters outside his base.

Many were concerned about inflation and the economy.

In the end, they decided to give the billionaire from New York another turn in the White House.

But latest polling figures suggest the president's approval rating has dropped, and it has dropped to its lowest level.

His poll numbers could be lower, in fact, than any past president at this point in their term.

A survey found that 39% of respondents said they approve of how Trump is handling his job as president. 55% say they disapprove.

And to put that in perspective, the previous low was 42%, and that was for Trump back in 2017.

On specific issues, 72% said they think it's very or somewhat likely that his economic policies will cause a recession in the short term.

And even on immigration, a signature issue for the president, 53% disapprove of the way he is handling things.

So let's get into all of this with US pollster and author John Zogby, who joins me now.

It's so interesting, some of the detail, John.

And I'm hoping you can shed some light into some of those figures that I just shared with our viewers, particularly whether or not we're looking at the independents, those that are perhaps experiencing some buyer's remorse, who have responded to the survey saying they're not happy with President Trump.

I think that's the key phrase, buyer's remorse.

He lost independence to Joe Biden in 2020.

And in 2024, he won among independents, but now he's 11 points upside down among independents, double digits.

That means he's lost a considerable amount of them.

And it also means that it's the difference between having won a majority of the popular vote, actually, in 2024, and now being upside down in the popular vote.

And John, is a lot of this down to the fact that people are unhappy with how he's handling the economy?

And the ironic thing is that the impact of inflation has been reduced in actual terms.

The growth of inflation is down, and yet consumer confidence is the lowest that it's been since the 1950s.

John, what about issues like immigration?

It was such a signature issue for Donald Trump on the campaign trail, and he's signed a flurry of executive orders over it.

How do people feel about what he's done on immigration?

It's the one issue that he continues to get more voters who approve of what he's doing than disapprove, although those numbers of approval are down.

But it's also the issue besides the economy that is generating and congealing the opposition to him right now.

What about those that are true Republicans, John?

Well, in terms of those who identify as Republicans, he's still getting 88, 89% support.

Now, there are those who were Republican, maybe still feel that they are, but are now identifying themselves as independent.

You know, Republican-leaning independent, and those are the ones that he appears to be losing at a higher pace than any other group.

A lot is being made of this poll, John, and the fact that his poll numbers could be lower than any past president at this point.

But to put it all in perspective, of course, the previous low was 42%, and that was also for Donald Trump back in 2017.

And yet here we are, another Trump presidency.

So how much should we really read into this?

Well, what we can understand is that this is a honeymoon period, that we're celebrating the end of the honeymoon period.

And that is when, under normal circumstances, presidents mobilize public opinion, push through their agenda, especially when Trump got a majority of the vote and won all of the battleground states.

This is a time that he's supposed to emerge triumphant as having had a successful period, and now the press will pounce.

It appears from all of the polling that he has squandered this opportunity.

Is any bit polling being done on what they have been doing over these past 100 days, their reaction to this Trump presidency as well?

Many people feeling that they've lost a sense of direction, that they're not fighting back in a way that they perhaps should have.

Well, yeah, but two different things here.

One is, as far as the polling is concerned, Democrats have solid support among Democrats.

They're doing better among independents than they were after the Trump victory.

But part of the problem is that right now, what's emerging triumphant for Democrats is one side.

That's the Bernie Sanders AOC, very progressive side of the party that is fighting, and where most observers think that if they emerge as dominant within the party, they'll alienate more moderate voters.

John, really interesting to talk to you as always.