The first two months of President Donald Trump’s second term have certainly been eventful — thousands of layoffs courtesy of the Department of Government Efficiency, a public spat with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office and a potential tariff war between bordering nations.
Now the president is currently expected to sign a long-anticipated executive order on Thursday to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education.
Trump will direct his education secretary, Linda McMahon, to take “all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return education authority to the States,” according to a White House summary of the order reviewed by USA TODAY. It also calls for the “uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”
The department, established as a Cabinet-level agency by Congress back in 1979, would not close immediately with Trump’s signature. Eliminating it in its entirety would require action from Congress.
Has this news impacted Trump’s approval rating? Here’s what to know.
What is Trump’s approval rating?
U.S. President Donald Trump reacts as he meets NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte (not pictured), in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 13, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
As of March 20, here is what polls are saying:
NBC News
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Poll shows Trump’s approval rating at 47%. (Poll conducted; 1,000 registered voters; margin of error ±3.1 percentage points)
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“While this survey shows a mixed result for Donald Trump, Democrats are the ones in the wilderness right now,” said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, who conducted this survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies.
Reuters/Ipsos
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Sshows that despite a steady 44% approval rating since taking office, other areas of his job performance have changed. Americans’ view on his handling of the economy (Poll published March 13; 1,422 U.S. adults; margin of error of ±3 percentage points.
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Americans’ views on his handling of the economy, for example, have gone from 43% in late January to 39% this week.
Emerson College:
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A national survey of voters finds President Trump with a 47% job approval and 45% disapproval rating. (Poll conducted March 8-10; 1,000 adults; margin of error ±3 percentage points)
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They found that Trump’s disapproval increased by two points since last week’s national poll, while his approval rating decreased by one percentage point.
YouGov/TheEconomist:
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Poll shows 46% of Americans approve of Trump while 51% disapprove. (poll conducted March 16-18; 1,618 adults; margin of error ±3.4 percentage points).
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98% of respondents said jobs and the economy were the most important issue to them.
Morning Consult:
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The majority of voters now view Trump unfavorably with 51%, compared with 46% with a favorable view. (poll updated March 14-16, 2,210 registered voters; margin of error ±2 percentage points).
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Poll writes Trump’s decline has come gradually over the past month, driven in part by women, lower earners, and Democratic voters as his numbers have held steady with the Republican base.
Gallup:
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More respondents disapprove of Trump’s job overall by a 6-point margin (poll conducted Feb 3-16; 1,004 adult respondents; margin of error ±4 percentage points).
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His support is highly partisan, as the poll shows the gap between Democrats who approve of Trump and Republicans who approve of Trump is 89 percentage points, the highest Gallup has measured for any president.
What do Florida polls say about Donald Trump’s approval rating?
The Sunshine State went red again for Trump during the 2024 General Election, securing 30 electoral votes for the now-president.
Civiqs polls, last updated on March 19, state that the president has a 53% favorability among Floridians. A 44% unfavourability counters this.
What goes into a president’s approval rating? When did they start?
According to data agency Gallup, a presidential approval rating is a “simple measure, yet a very powerful one that has played a key role in politics for over 70 years.”
A president’s approval rating reflects the percentage of Americans polled who approve of the president’s performance. Anything can impact a president’s rating, such as legislation passed, actions, and elections.
According to ABC News, an approval rating doesn’t just represent how well the administration is doing for the general public but could determine the outcome of an upcoming election for a politician or how much they get done during their time in office.
Presidential approval ratings were first conducted by the founder of the American Institute of Public Opinion, George Gallup, around 1935 to gauge public support for the president of the United States during their term.
While Gallup has tracked presidential approval for 70 years, other organizations release their own polls as well, including Ipsos and Morning Consult.
How does Trump’s approval rating compare with his first term?
Trump ended his first term in 2021 with a final approval rating of 34%, the same as former presidents George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter.
His approval average was 41%.
USA TODAY contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Trump’s approval rating: See what national, Florida polls are saying
