Trump Polls

Donald Trump’s signature obsession—immigration—has officially curdled into a political liability. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds his approval on immigration has fallen to a record low, with a clear majority of Americans saying his crackdown has gone too far. Turns out that masked agents in tactical gear and U.S. citizens getting shot in the street aren’t the crowd-pleasers Trump thought they’d be.

Just 39% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of immigration, while 53% disapprove. Even worse for a president who treats bravado as a brand, 58% say ICE’s actions have crossed the line, compared with just 12% who think they haven’t gone far enough (I shudder to think what those people think is far enough).

The timing is brutal. The poll was conducted around the killing of Alex Pretti, the second U.S. citizen killed by ICE-linked operations there in weeks. Administration officials immediately blamed Pretti, accusing him of assaulting officers, even as bystander videos appeared to contradict their claims. The pattern is becoming familiar: shoot first, smear the victim, sort out the facts later, if ever.

Trump rode back into office promising “historic” deportations, and he’s delivered the spectacle: agents in military-style gear, aggressive raids, and protests erupting in American cities. What he hasn’t delivered is public confidence. Immigration, once one of his strongest issues, is now dragging him down with it.

The damage isn’t confined to Democrats. While nearly 90% of Democrats say ICE has gone too far, so do six in ten independents, and even two in ten Republicans, a warning light flashing red for a president heading into midterm season with inflation already gnawing at his party’s prospects. One high-profile Republican gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota has already quit, admitting the crackdown made winning impossible.

Trump’s overall approval rating has now sunk to 38%, tying the lowest point of his current term. He’s tried to dial back the bluster, suddenly claiming he’s on a “similar wavelength” as Minnesota’s Democratic governor after weeks of incendiary rhetoric, but the numbers suggest the damage is done.

Yes, Republicans still hold a narrow edge over Democrats on immigration in the abstract. But Trump’s version—chaotic, militarized, and drenched in equal parts blood and denial—appears to be wearing thin. Americans may want border enforcement. What they don’t want is a government that treats civilian deaths as messaging opportunities and constitutional norms as obstacles.

Trump promised control. What voters are seeing instead is cruelty, chaos, disorder, and a president who can’t stop making his own worst instincts official policy.