New polling shows that President Donald Trump’s approval rating has plummeted among baby boomers, a demographic that helped him win in 2024.
Why It Matters
Presidential approval ratings provide insights into how the public believes the president is performing.
Older Americans helped Trump triumph in the 2024 election. But their opinions of the Republican president may have shifted amid concerns about cuts to the nation’s safety net programs—Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Trump has said he has no plans to cut Social Security. However, the SSA’s plan to require in-person identity checks for millions of recipients while closing government offices and cutting staff has sparked alarm about possible disruptions to benefit payments.
Trump has also said Medicare and Medicaid are safe, but significant changes to Medicaid will be needed for Republicans to claim the savings needed to offset the cost of tax cuts in their House-approved budget proposal.
Some may also be concerned about their savings and investments amid market turmoil over Trump’s economic policies and fears of a recession.
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What To Know
The Economist/YouGov polls conducted between March 9 and 11 among 1,699 adults and March 16 and 18 among 1,618 adults found Trump’s approval rating fell among all age demographics.
While his rating dropped by two or three points among those aged 18 to 29, 30 to 44 and 45 to 64, the decline among those over 65 was considerably more.
The survey conducted between March 9 and 11 found that 49 percent of people over 65 approved of Trump’s performance as president, while 48 percent disapproved, giving him a net approval rating of +1.
The same survey conducted between March 16 and 18 found his net approval rating had dropped by 10 points to -9. In that survey, only 45 percent of people over 65 approved of the job Trump was doing, while 54 percent disapproved.
The earlier survey’s sample of people over 65 was 400, and the more recent survey’s sample was 384.
There was also a significant decline in approval of how Trump handled jobs and the economy among those over 65. The earlier survey had his net approval rating on the issue at -1, with 47 percent approving and 48 percent disapproving.
However, the more recent survey found that his net approval rating on the issue had dropped to -14, with just 42 percent approving and 56 percent disapproving.
Inflation and prices were another issue on which Trump’s approval rating took a hit among people over 65. His net approval rating on the issue was -7 in the earlier poll, with 44 percent approving and 51 percent disapproving, but it had dropped to -15 (41 percent approving and 56 percent disapproving) in the more recent poll.
What People Are Saying
Costas Panagopoulos, a professor of Political Science at Northeastern University, told Newsweek: “There appears to be deterioration in approval among baby boomers over the past few weeks, although the relatively limited number of the polls’ respondents in this subgroup requires caution. Nevertheless, the trend suggests baby boomers are souring on Trump approval quite rapidly since early March.”
President Donald Trump, in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on February 18: “Social Security won’t be touched…other than if there’s fraud or something—we’re going to find it; it’s going to be strengthened—but won’t be touched. Medicare, Medicaid, none of that stuff is going to be touched.”
Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk, in an interview with Fox Business earlier in March: “The waste and fraud in entitlement spending…that’s the big one to eliminate.”
Utah Senator John Curtis said on Meet the Press on Sunday: “We’re not being honest when we look people in the eye and say we’re not going to touch [Social Security]. If we don’t touch it, it touches itself. You know that, right? That’s not being honest with the American people. And I think that’s one of the things that makes them not trust us when we say something that they just know is not true.”
What Happens Next
Trump’s approval rating among people over 65 will likely continue fluctuating as the impact of changes to Social Security and other actions by the Trump administration becomes clear.
