Just one in four US adults say Trump’s policies have helped them, poll finds

Only about one quarter of US adults say that President Donald Trump’s policies have helped them since he took office, according to a new poll.

In fact, the Republican president fails to earn majority approval on any of the issues included in the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research.

He has even slipped slightly since earlier this year on immigration, which has consistently been a strength for him in his second term.

And while a majority of Americans do see Mr Trump as at least “somewhat” capable of getting things done following the passage of his sprawling budget bill, fewer believe he understands the problems facing people like them.

Roughly half of US adults report that Mr Trump’s policies have “done more to hurt” them since his second term began six months ago, the survey found.

About two in 10 say his policies have “not made a difference” in their lives, with about one quarter saying his policies have “done more to help” them.

The vast majority of Democrats and about half of independents say Mr Trump’s policies have had a negative impact, while even many Republicans say they have not seen positive effects.

The mixed reviews on Mr Trump’s policies come as he struggles to follow through on key campaign promises, including lowering costs for working-class Americans, preserving popular social welfare programmes like Medicaid, ending foreign wars and lowering government spending.

Inflation rose last month to its highest level since February as Mr Trump’s sweeping tariffs push up the cost of everything from groceries and clothes to furniture and appliances.

Separately, Mr Trump’s budget bill included Medicaid cuts that will lead to 11.8 million more Americans becoming uninsured and add 3.3 trillion dollars to the national debt, the Congressional Budget Office estimated.

At the same time, violent conflicts still rage in Israel and Ukraine.

Overall, the new poll finds that about four in 10 US adults approve of Mr Trump’s job performance, a figure that’s in line with his June approval but historically weak compared with recent presidents.

Closer to half of US adults approved of Joe Biden and Barack Obama at roughly the same point in their Democratic presidencies, according to polls from AP-NORC and Gallup, although Mr Biden’s approval rating declined in the second half of his first year and remained low for the rest of his time in office.

Mr Trump earned less than 50% approval on every issue included in the new AP-NORC poll, including the economy, government spending, trade, taxes, immigration, health care and his handling of the conflict in the Middle East.

Only 43% of US adults said they approved of his handling of immigration, down slightly from the 49% who supported his work on the issue back in March.

Mr Trump also appears to have lost some support for his spending decisions. About four in 10 Americans approve of Mr Trump’s handling of government spending, down from 46% in March.

On the economy overall, roughly four in 10 adults approve of Trump’s performance, which has not changed measurably in the last few months.

Despite such criticism, most US adults think Mr Trump is at least somewhat effective.

About six in 10 say “capable of getting things done” describes Mr Trump at least “somewhat” well. And about half of US adults say the same about the phrases “good negotiator” or “capable of handling a crisis”.