Politico: Warning signs for Trump in new polling

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Donald Trump’s honeymoon may be wearing off.

New polls show a majority of Americans say he has overstepped his presidential authority — and hasn’t done enough to address high prices.

Two new polls from CNN/SSRS and The Washington Post/Ipsos show the GOP president’s approval rating underwater (47-52 in the CNN poll, 45-53 in the Post), a shift from polling earlier this year that found voters roughly divided on him, with some surveys even showing a positive approval rating.
One reason for the erosion of support: a slight majority of respondents in both surveys said Trump has overstepped his presidential power in his attempts to reshape the federal government driven by tech billionaire Elon Musk. Many of Trump’s most controversial early initiatives, including a sweeping spending freeze, have been blocked in court thus far, but the new administration has still made waves with layoffs of federal workers, cuts to federal contracts and a flood of executive orders.

Those activities haven’t been popular, the new polling found. In the Post survey, for example, 58 percent of respondents opposed laying off large numbers of federal workers. And Musk, Trump’s most high-profile adviser, is not getting good marks either: Just 34 percent of respondents in the Post poll approved of Musk’s role in the federal government, while 54 percent of respondents in the CNN poll said it was bad for Trump to have given the SpaceX CEO a prominent role in his administration.

Americans also remain skeptical of Trump’s handling of an issue the public has long said is among the most important: high prices. In the CNN survey, 62 percent of respondents — including 47 percent of Republicans — said the president has not done enough to try to reduce the prices of everyday goods.

And tariffs, perhaps Trump’s signature economic issue so far, aren’t seen as a solution: 69 percent of respondents in the Post poll said tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China would make products in the U.S. more expensive.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the polls Thursday morning.

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