Trump’s approval rating still negative while the public sours further on Democrats, CNBC survey shows

President Donald Trump‘s overall and economic approval ratings remain in negative territory despite a slight improvement in the latest CNBC All-America Economic Survey.

More troubling for the president, however, could be that the survey shows positive approval of only one of seven key issues, with the public holding negative views on his handling of tariffs, inflation, taxes and federal spending.

There also was a modest rise in the public’s preference for the Democrats to control Congress, rising to a 49%-44% advantage from 48%-46% in April. It was the largest lead for Democrats since 2021.

At the same time, favorability of the Democratic Party among registered voters sank to a net -32 percentage points, with 24% positive and 56% negative. The -32 rating appeared to be the lowest rating for either party going back to at least 1996.

The public disapproves of the job Trump is doing as president by a 51%-46% margin, up from 51%-44% in the April survey. The change is within the survey’s +/-3.1 percentage point margin of error as is the gap in his approval rating.

The president’s economic approval rating remains negative with 45% approving and 53% disapproving, a modest gain from 43%-55% in April. But it’s the second time in a row that his economic approval was worse than his overall approval, a reversal from his first term when the president was always stronger on the economy.

“What seemed to be keeping President Trump’s overall approval level from really dropping down was the strong economy and the credit that he got from the public,” said Jay Campbell, partner at Hart Research, the survey’s Democratic pollster. “He cannot rely on that at this point.”

Overall, the survey of 1,000 people nationwide conducted July 29-Aug. 3 showed a series of conflicting political and economic crosscurrents, with individuals and demographic groups offering sometimes contradictory opinions.

“Trump’s approval is stable, but his individual ratings are down on issue after issue, except for tariffs,” said Micah Roberts, partner with Public Opinion Strategies, which conducted the poll and served as its Republican pollster. “Economic optimism is higher, but there’s been no relief in this data from inflation.”

For example, just 39% of independents approve of the president’s handling of the economy, and that drops to 24% on inflation. Even Republicans are 9 points lower on inflation than their economic approval rating.

The president is underwater on inflation by 23 points, with 37% approving and 60% disapproving, unchanged from the last survey. The conflicts could be the result of the public simply having trouble keeping up with the breakneck changes to the economy, immigration, taxation and the political system issuing from the Trump administration.

On the current state of the economy, attitudes have improved, with 31% saying it’s excellent or good and 68% calling it just fair or poor. Those are the best numbers since the early years of the Biden administration as the nation emerged from the pandemic, and an 11-point improvement from the CNBC survey in April.

The move was driven largely by growing optimism among Republicans, with some improvement among independents. But the outlook for the economy barely budged, with 36% saying it will get better, 17% saying it will stay the same, and 46% expecting it to get worse.

Republicans became a bit less optimistic and independents somewhat less pessimistic.

Views on the stock market also improved with 46% saying it’s a good time to invest and 42% saying it’s a bad time. The sharp improvement to +4 percentage points from -15 percentage points has come with a surge in stocks that followed the president backing off from sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs and the passage of tax legislation.

Even 36% of those with no investments think it’s a good time invest, the highest on record for a group that is typically negative on stocks.

There also is unambiguous disapproval of the president’s foreign policy (-14 points), federal spending (-19 points), taxes (-13 points) and inflation (-23 points), which is unchanged from April.

In fact, 60% of the public still say their incomes are falling behind the rising cost of living, with women and those with lower incomes saying they are especially hard hit.

Tariffs could be playing a role in the inflation outlook: 49% say tariffs hurt workers compared with only 37% who say they help; 67% say they raise the cost of everyday goods. But by a 47%-37% margin, tariffs are seen helping U.S. companies who produce in the U.S.

Still, almost three-quarters of the public say foreign trade represents an economic opportunity for the U.S., rather than a threat. The public on net disapproves of the president’s tariffs by a 51%-45% margin.