So Much Winning — Voters Give Trump’s Leadership, Policies Strong Backing In August: I&I/TIPP Poll
While President Trump’s leadership style and policies both can at times be controversial even among his own GOP base, he continues to hold on tight to his solid overall favorability ratings among American voters, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll data show.
The national online I&I/TIPP Poll, taken by 1,362 voters from July 30-Aug. 1, show Trump holding steady, with 45% giving him a “favorable” rating, and an equal 45% giving him “unfavorable.” Another 6% answered “not familiar enough to say” while 4% were “not sure.” The poll’s margin of error of is +/-2.7 percentage points.
Amid the tumultuous events during month of July, including ongoing tough tariff negotiations by the Trump administration, mixed signs from the economy, growing violence against federal ICE agents, and stunning recent revelations about the Democrats’ “Russian hoax” scandal, Trump’s standing among the voters edged up during the month by one point.
By comparison, with his leadership widely questioned, President Joe Biden left office earlier this year underwater with a 38% favorable grade but 51% unfavorable, for a net favorability score of -13 points, compared to Trump’s current break-even.
But interesting patterns emerge when looking at Trump’s support across different demographic groups.
You might be surprised, for instance, to find that Trump’s highest favorability ratings by geography are in the South (48% favorable, 42% unfavorable) and the West (47% favorable, 43% unfavorable), but not the Northeast (41% favorable, 51% unfavorable) or the Midwest (40% favorable, 50% unfavorable).
By age, his strongest support by far comes from the largest single voting bloc: Those in the prime working age of 25-44 years (55% favorable, 34% unfavorable).
Trump holds less favorable ratings with 18-24 year-olds (33% favorable, 55% unfavorable), 45-64 year-old Gen-Xers (43% favorable, 47% unfavorable), and the 65-plus Baby Boomer contingent (39% favorable, 60% unfavorable).
Men and women? Day and night. Men (55% favorable, 37% unfavorable) are far more positive about Trump’s presidency than women (35% favorable, 53% unfavorable).
By race and ethnicity, white voters (49% favorable, 42% unfavorable) give Trump a strong edge; Hispanic voters (41% favorable, 47% unfavorable) come in slightly lower, but black voters are far lower (25% favorable, 59% unfavorable).
One other ongoing surprise: Voters who hail from urban areas (51% favorable, 40% unfavorable) are the most enthused over Trump’s presidential leadership, followed by rural voters (44% favorable, 42% unfavorable) and lowest of all, suburban voters (39% favorable, 52% unfavorable).
And there’s one other significant difference: investors versus non-investors. Investors (63% favorable, 34% unfavorable) love Trump, while non-investors (37% favorable, 52% unfavorable) mostly don’t.
I&I/TIPP asks one other big question about presidential leadership each month related to voter approval: “In general, do you approve or disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president, or are you not familiar enough to say one way or the other?”
Overall, 45% approve, while 46% disapprove, statistically similar to the first question asked voters. And the responses, broken down by demographics, were also similar. As with all presidents, Trump has strong and weak points among the voting public.
But what about the strength of his leadership? How do voters view that?
The answer: Even those who might not approve, see him mostly as a strong leader. Among all respondents 44% called his leadership either “very strong” (27%) or “strong” (17%), versus 38% who called his leadership “weak” (10%) or “very weak” (18%). Another 15% termed Trump’s leadership “moderate.”
(Below: The TIPP Presidential Leadership Index measures public sentiment over time by combining three components: favorability, job approval, and presidential leadership. The index ranges from 0 to 100, with readings above 50 indicating optimism and below 50 signaling pessimism. In August, the overall index stood at 50.1, with Republicans most optimistic at 84.1, Democrats least at 20.7, and independents in between at 39.1.)
Finally, Trump’s policy-specific report card.
I&I/TIPP each month also asks voters: “How would you grade Trump Administration performance” on 12 key current policy issues of import to American voters.
Overall, 40% give Trump either “excellent” or “good” grades on these issues, with the three highest going to “Handling the immigration, border security situation” (45%), “Restoring America’s core values” (40%), and an four-way tie between “Handling the economy,” “Handling violence and crime in the country,” “Handling of energy policy,” and “Handling of trade and tariffs,” all at 38%.
The lowest three scores: “Handling of North Korea” (33%); “Handling of Healthcare,” “Handling of the Russia-Ukraine war,” and “Handling of Russia,” all at 34%; and, finally, “Handling of China” and “Handling the Israel-Hamas conflict” both at 35%. All the rest of the issues (see chart) came somewhere in-between.
In sum, Trump receives “excellent” or “good” scores from more than a third of the electorate. Also, with 11% to 20% “average” scores on individual issues, he easily has passing grades overall.
Despite negative and at times hostile press treatment, Trump has won battle after battle not just with the media, but with his Democratic Party political foes, and the deep-seated bureaucracy that writes and oversees our regulations, manages our economic data, and continues to fund leftist groups and governments that damage the interests of working Americans.
Trump is an unabashed fighter, something that Americans admire, even when he goes too far. Indeed, some thought Trump did just that by threatening to fire Fed Chairman Jerome Powell before his term at the central bank was done, and then actually firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for “faking” job statistics.
But the second-term president knows his time in office is short, and is impatient. He has a growing list of accomplishments to show for it, from closing the border and rewriting global trade rules, to shrinking the bureaucracy and pushing through his “Big Beautiful Bill.” He even got NATO countries to boost spending on defense from 2% to 5%, and agree to tariffs. So far he’s outperforming even his first term.
It appears Americans like Trump the fighter, even if he doesn’t always fight by Marquess of Queensberry Rules. A bit over six months into his second term, he’s been one of the most successful presidents in history.
I&I/TIPP publishes timely, unique, and informative data each month on topics of public interest. TIPP’s reputation for polling excellence comes from being the most accurate pollster for the past six presidential elections.
Terry Jones is an editor of Issues & Insights. His four decades of journalism experience include serving as national issues editor, economics editor, and editorial page editor for Investor’s Business Daily.
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