Americans have a dim view of some of President Donald Trump's early barrage of executive orders, including his attempt to do away with so-called birthright citizenship and his decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.Since taking office on Jan. 20, the Republican president has moved quickly to crack down on immigration and scale back the size of government, efforts that respondents to the three-day poll that closed on Sunday look on more favorably.Overall, the poll showed 45% of Americans approve of Trump's performance as president, down slightly from 47% in a Jan. 20-21 poll. The share who disapproved was slightly larger at 46%, an increase from 39% in the prior poll.The poll had a margin of error of about 4 percentage points."While it does seem Trump is getting a honeymoon to some extent, his numbers are still not impressive by historical standards," said Kyle Kondik, an analyst with the University of Virginia Center for Politics. During Trump's first term, his approval rating hit as high as 49% during his first weeks in office but he closed out his term at 34% approval following the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.It may be too early to evaluate whether Trump is squandering his political capital by focusing on issues where he is not aligned with the public, Kondik said. But the poll shows that many of his early actions have been greeted warmly only by his hardcore base of supporters.Voters more generally remain deeply concerned about the high price of food, housing, and other necessities, the poll found.Most Americans opposed ending the nation's longstanding practice of granting citizenship to children born in the U.S. even if neither parent has legal immigration status, the poll found. Some 59% of respondents—including 89% of Democrats and 36% of Republicans—said they opposed ending birthright citizenship. A federal judge last week temporarily blocked the Trump administration from making changes to birthright citizenship, but the White House has vowed to fight on.
