A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Hey, it's report card day.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Yay.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, if that brought back feelings of anxiety from when you were in school, relax, you are not being graded, but the president is.
INSKEEP: More than 1,400 respondents to an NPR/PBS News/Marist poll sent in their grades for President Trump's first 100 days, and the most common grade submitted for the president is F. Forty-five percent gave him the failing mark. About a quarter of voters gave Trump an A.
MARTÍNEZ: Let's hear now from senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro, who's been analyzing the numbers. Domenico, so no one likes an F. I am very familiar with that grade, by the way, from my high school years.
DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: I don't believe you.
MARTÍNEZ: It's true. But so - I mean, why did so many respondents give him an F?
MONTANARO: Well, it really looks like it has a lot to do with tariffs and the economy, and just 39% approve of how he's handling the economy. That's his lowest mark ever for that, including for his first term. And even lower, 34%, approve of his tariffs. Almost 6 in 10 say Trump's tariffs on imports will hurt the economy. The percentage of people expecting prices to increase is up 7 points from last month.
MARTÍNEZ: Well, that's pretty damning. I mean, the economy is the most important issue for most voters, I would assume.
MONTANARO: Yeah. I mean, across all age groups, you know, whether it's men or women, the economy, inflation, that comes up over and over again. It was certainly the biggest issue in the 2024 election, and arguably, there was no bigger reason that Trump won than his promises to bring prices down. But the bottom line here is that people are sending a very clear message. They largely think these tariffs are a bad idea.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. Now, this disapproval of the president can't be just about the economy.
MONTANARO: Yeah, that's true. I mean, majorities disapprove of how he's handling most aspects of his job, actually, from tariffs and the economy to foreign policy and immigration, which, by the way, had been a relative strength for Trump. Overall, Trump is down to just a 42% approval rating. That's second only to himself in 2017, for the worst score for any president at the hundred-day mark, if you look at the numbers that Gallup has put together since Harry Truman. Things can change. Some presidents who were very high at the hundred-point mark went down. Others, like Bill Clinton, who was only at about 45% at a hundred days, left office with a very high approval rating. So we'll see what happens, but we're in very polarized times. I don't expect much to change people's minds. Trump's base, for example, remains very much intact and is giving him a long leash on things like tariffs because they believe in the long run they'll be good for the economy.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, let's get into the sweeping changes Trump's tried to make to the government, and Elon Musk, who's led the charge on that front. What do people think about?
MONTANARO: Yeah, none of that is really popular either. Six in 10 say that they think that Trump is rushing to make changes. That's up 5 points from last month. About 4 in 10, though, mostly Republicans think he's doing what needs to be done. Still, overwhelmingly, the majority of Americans, 85%, think that Trump should follow court orders, even ones he doesn't like. Think about things like his deportations and government restructuring through DOGE, that Department of Government Efficiency, that Musk has been heading up. As for DOGE and Musk themselves, both are also increasingly unpopular. Just 34% have a favorable view of Musk. That's down 5 points from last month. In Trump's first hundred days, Musk was at Trump's side a lot, but I think that buddy movie, A, might be coming to an end soon. Not only is Musk unpopular, but his time as an informal government adviser is up at the end of next month. And Musk himself has said that he's going to be spending less time on DOGE, given the 71% drop in profits at his company, Tesla.
MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Domenico Montanaro. Thanks a lot.
MONTANARO: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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