--- title: Donald Trump Polls: What Americans Think of His Policies description: President Trump isn't just down in the polls personally, so are some of his policies. canonical: https://time.com/4892348/donald-trump-policies-polling/ author: Emma Talkoff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-10T15:00:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:28:11.197Z article:section: Politics og:title: Many Americans Disapprove of Trump. Here's What They Think of His Policies og:description: A handful get support, but others have significant opposition. og:url: https://time.com/4892348/donald-trump-policies-polling/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt056d688e4140757d/6988d91322fb851fe4e2254a/donald-trump-mitch-mcconnell.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: President Donald Trump Meets with House and Senate Leadership og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Many Americans Disapprove of Trump. Here's What They Think of His Policies twitter:description: A handful get support, but others have significant opposition. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt056d688e4140757d/6988d91322fb851fe4e2254a/donald-trump-mitch-mcconnell.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Many Americans Disapprove of President Trump. Here's What They Think of His Policies > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. 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It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=bea98d94-c85b-4f49-8535-56ead4a556f2&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: President Trump's Shifting Stances On Vacations [Watch (HLS stream): President Trump's Shifting Stances On Vacations](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/nhIqK3Dn.m3u8) (1:44)  _Published 2017-08-09. President Trump's Shifting Stances On Vacations_ by [Emma Talkoff](https://time.com/author/emma-talkoff/) ## Emma Talkoff Aug 10, 2017 3:00 PM UTC President Trump's Shifting Stances On Vacations by [Emma Talkoff](https://time.com/author/emma-talkoff/) ## Emma Talkoff Aug 10, 2017 3:00 PM UTC President Trump isn’t just [down in the polls](http://time.com/4890726/donald-trump-base-voters-approval-ratings-fall/) personally, so are some of his policies. After six months in office, Trump’s approval rating is just 37% in the [Gallup daily poll](http://www.gallup.com/poll/201617/gallup-daily-trump-job-approval.aspx), and he’s hit [record lows](http://time.com/4859984/donald-trump-poll-approval-ratings/) in other surveys. At the same time, a number of his policies have also polled poorly, while a handful have scored well in surveys. Here’s a quick look at where Trump’s policies stand in the polls, in order from most to least popular. ## Barring Travel from Six Muslim-Majority Countries: 60% Support In January, Trump introduced a a travel ban on visitors from six predominantly Muslim countries. The executive order faced months of [legal](http://time.com/4858084/hawaii-judge-relatives-exempt-travel-ban/) and [political](http://time.com/4845685/travel-ban-supreme-court-john-pail-stevens/) challenges, and unclear public opinion: conflicting polls variously reported both support and disapproval of the measure. But a July [POLITICO/Morning Consult poll ](http://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000015d-0ea5-d1e3-a97d-5ff5d4dc0001)reported definitively that 60% of respondents supported the [revised version](http://time.com/4834870/supreme-court-travel-ban-3-things/) of the policy. ## Using a Skills-Based Immigration System: 60% Support In August, Trump announced his support for the RAISE Act, a longshot Senate bill that would change the immigration system to more heavily consider factors like English proficiency and college degrees. In a [POLITICO/Morning Consult poll](http://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000015d-c4ac-dd39-a75d-cfbfbc3e0002), 60% of respondents favored such a system. ## Reducing Legal Immigration: 48% Support The RAISE Act would also reduce legal immigration by half over the next decade. The [POLITICO/Morning Consult survey](http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/09/trump-immigration-polls-241422) taken after Trump announced his support for the bill found that 48% of voters back the reduction in legal immigrants, while 39% opposed it. ## Repealing Obamacare Without a Replacement: 50% Against In late June, Trump tweeted that Senate Republicans should “immediately REPEAL” Obamacare, and then pass a replacement bill “at a later date.” But that move, which would eventually be tested in the Senate’s failed attempt to pass a “skinny” repeal bill, is unpopular. Fifty percent of voters in a [POLITICO/Morning Consult poll](http://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000015d-7a13-dad8-a1df-fe9b171c0000) said the opposed a repeal without replacement, while just 36% expressed support. ## Cutting Medicaid: 53% Against Though he pledged not to touch Medicaid on the campaign trail, Trump supported [health care bills](http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/30/news/economy/medicaid-spending-cuts-senate-cbo/index.html) in Congress that would have cut the insurance program for lower-income Americans dramatically. A [POLITICO/Morning Consult poll](https://morningconsult.com/2017/06/28/voters-oppose-senate-health-care-bills-cuts-medicaid/) in June found that 53% of voters objected to the reductions in Medicaid. Only 27% supported the cuts. ## Barring Transgender Troops: 58% Against In July, Trump unexpectedly [announced](http://time.com/4874255/donald-trump-transgender-military-cant-serve/?xid=homepage) via Twitter that transgender people would be barred from serving in the military “in any capacity,” citing “tremendous medical costs and disruption.” Days later, a [Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-military-transgender-poll-idUSKBN1AD2BL) found that 58 percent believed that transgender people should be allowed to serve. Only 27% said they should not be allowed to serve. ## **Leaving the Paris Climate Deal: 62% Against** In May, Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Paris agreement, fulfilling a campaign promise to divert funding away from climate change. Sixty-two percent of voters in a [Quinnipiac poll](https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2462) said they disapproved of the President’s decision to withdraw from the accord. Only 32% backed the idea. ## Building the Border Wall: 64% Against Trump’s call for a wall along the Mexican border was one of his major campaign promises, and his proposed 2018 budget included a request for $1.6 billion to begin construction. But [a May survey](https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2457) by Quinnipiac found that 64% of voters oppose building the wall—up from 55% who opposed it in November. Only 33% supported the idea. ## Transcript [00:00] I love golf and I have some of the greatest golf courses in [00:02] the world. I don't think I'd ever see many of the places that I [00:04] have. I don't ever think I'd see anything. I just want to stay [00:08] in the White House and work my **** off. And I won't be [00:10] playing golf instead of going to see the people [00:15] in Louisiana. Obama, it was reported today, played [00:19] 250 rounds of golf, and he's going to be in. Hawaii I think, [00:22] did they say for three weeks? Should the president take a [00:25] vacation? The answer depends on your partisan leaning. [00:30] It's a tradition for political opponents to criticize the [00:32] Commander in Chief for taking time off. But Donald Trump [00:35] is driving more criticism than usual and he only has himself [00:39] to blame. During the previous administration, Trump was a [00:43] frequent and vocal critic of President Obama's vacations, [00:46] calling him a habitual vacationer who wasted taxpayer [00:50] money. But so far, Trump has taken more time [00:54] off than Obama. In his first 200 days, he spent 41 days [00:58] away from the White House, nearly twice as many as [01:00] Obama in that same time frame. Frame. One government [01:02] report put the estimated cost for a single trip to Trump's [01:06] private Mar- A- Lago club at $ 3. 6 million. Trump [01:11] has argued that these are working vacations, but by those [01:13] standards, so were the ones taken by Obama and even [01:16] George W Bush. But an even bigger problem for Trump is [01:19] the fact that he's long criticized the very idea Of taking [01:22] vacations. In his 2005 book, Think Like A Billionaire, his [01:25] number one piece of advice? Don't take vacations. What's [01:29] the point, he wrote. If you're not enjoying your work, you're [01:32] doing the wrong job. For Donald Trump, as with his [01:35] predecessors, even a vacation provides no break from [01:38] criticism. 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