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Satisfaction with the direction of the country reached its lowest point of President Trump’s second term in office, according to the latest Gallup poll, though views remain broadly more positive than before he took office.
Twenty-nine percent of the country say they’re satisfied “with the way things are going in the United States at this time,” compared to 67 percent who say they’re dissatisfied and 4 percent who say they have no opinion, according to the survey, which was conducted in the first half of September.
That marks a slight decline in satisfaction from the 31 percent recorded in August, 33 percent gauged in July and 31 percent found in June.
The highest satisfaction rating of Trump’s second term was recorded in May, when 38 percent were satisfied. That followed higher marks than seen in the recent surveys: 34 percent in April, 37 percent in March and 34 percent in February, when the question was first asked during Trump’s second term.
Despite the dip in satisfaction, Americans are more satisfied with the way things are going in the country today than they were before Trump took office, according to the poll.
In the January survey, conducted before the start of Trump’s second term, only 20 percent of respondents were satisfied with the direction of the country.
In fact, the last time satisfaction rate reached the 30 percent threshold was in July 2021, a few months into former President Biden’s term in office. Biden similarly enjoyed mid-30s satisfaction rates during the first six months of his presidency, but those levels never fully recovered.
The drop in satisfaction in September’s survey is driven largely by a dip among Republicans — 68 percent of whom say they’re satisfied with the way things are going, down from 76 percent in August.
Independents’ satisfaction rate remains stable at 23 percent, and Democrats’ similarly is unchanged, at 1 percent.
The period during which the survey was conducted included the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, which Gallup suggested could have impacted Republican responses.
The same survey asks respondents about the “most important problem facing this country,” and mentions of crime or violence more than doubled, jumping from 3 percent in August to 8 percent in September. The latest result is the highest level since August 2020, which previously was the highest since 2002.
Gallup noted the uptick in crime mentions was seen most acutely after Kirk’s Sept. 10 assassination.
The survey was conducted Sept. 2-16 and included 1,000 respondents. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.
