President Donald Trump's approval rating has reportedly seen a significant shift in recent months, according to the latest Associated Press/NORC at the University of Chicago poll released on Thursday (December 11).

Trump currently has a 36% overall job approval rating, which is 6% lower than his rating in a March 2025 poll. The president was also previously reported to have 40% support in his handling of the economy and 49% favoring his immigration policies in March, but both numbers have since dropped to 31% and 38%, respectively.

Border security remains Trump's most favorable policy with a 50% approval rating while health care is his least favorable at 29%. The Associated Press/NORC at the University of Chicago poll was released days after a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed the president's approval rating increasing slightly after previously falling to its low point for his second term in office.

Trump was reported to have a 41% approval rating, a rise from the 38% reported in the survey released on November 18, along with a 57% disapproval rating among the 4,434 adults nationwide interviewed for the poll, which had a reported 2% margin of error. Reuters' analysis of the data at least partially contributes the slight increase to improved cost-of-living ratings, which has been a focal point of domestic politics in recent months, with the Democrats sweeping last month's off-year elections by running on affordability platforms.

Trump has since ramped up efforts on the issue, scaling back some of his tariff increases and vowing to combat rising food prices, with the Reuters/Ipsos poll showing a 31% cost of living approval rating, still among the weakest of his popularity scores, but higher than the 26% for the issue reported in November.

Famed polling expert Nate Silver had also reported a slight improvement for Trump's net approval rating on his Silver Bulletin blog published on Sunday (December 7).

"After crashing at the tail end of the longest government shutdown in US history, Donald Trump’s approval rating has stabilized somewhat. Today, his net approval rating is -13.5, which is about 1.5 points higher than his second term low on November 23rd," Silver wrote.

Silver said the increase comes from the latest TIPP and InsiderAdvantage polls which had the president at -4 and -5, respectively, which are two of the highest net approval ratings he's had "since at least early November." The polling expert noted, however, that both surveys "have strong Republican house effects, meaning they tend to show Trump with a higher approval rating than the average poll."

Trump was reported to have a -19 net approval rating from YouGov; a -7 rating from Morning Consult and a -15 rating from Bullfinch in recent polls. Last week, CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten reported that the president's approval rating hit a new low for his second term and is approaching exclusive territory.

Enten discussed several polls showing Trump's negative net approval rating, including a recent Gallup poll, which had him at -24% from the -1% in January.

“We’re talking about a drop of over 20 points in the wrong direction for the president of the United States," Enten said.

Former President Richard Nixon was the only commander in chief with a lower approval rating than Trump in his second term, with Nixon's low-point coming just prior to becoming the first president to resign from office in 1974.

“Anywhere you look this is the second-worst for a president of either party in their second term dating all the way back since the 1940s,” Enten said.

The analyst added that no president has successfully increased their approval rating by more than five points between the current point of Trump's administration -- which is approaching its 11th full month -- and the midterm elections, with Enten predicting the Republicans will lose the Congressional majority.

Kenny Webster

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