Steve Kornacki: 59% Agree on Trump’s Deportation Efforts

WELKER: “We are now getting our first snapshot of how Americans are reacting to President Trump’s first month in office. I’m joined now by NBC’s Steve Kornacki. Steve, break down these numbers for us.”
KORNACKI: “Yeah, Kristen, you aren’t kidding. Just in the last couple days, five new polls out measuring that reaction from the public. You see them right here in the headline, polarizing a month into the second Trump presidency. You see his approval rating in four of these five polls is under 50%. In four of these five polls, his disapproval number is higher than his approval number. So by just about any historical standard, this is a low political position for a president to be in a month into his presidency, though it does — it is worth noting that the one exception to that would be Trump himself in his first term. This, in a way, nothing new for Trump. What you’re looking at here, the average of our NBC polls, the first Trump presidency, 2017-2021, if you averaged all those together, Trump in his first term was underwater approval rating, 44-53. His absolute best marks still never got that approval number over the disapproval number. You see as low as it got. And average everything that’s out there right now together, and you can see, how does where his current standing stack up? Kind of in that same range. So maybe another way of looking at this, another way this was asked, Quinnipiac asked folks out there, ‘There’s a lot going on. Are you surprised by any of it?’ And about a quarter of voters say Trump is exceeding their expectations in his first month here. About a quarter say he is failing to meet their expectations. Most, though, say, for all of the swirl of activity here, this is pretty much what they expected. Let’s look at some specific issues here, some actions, proposals from Trump here. Again, from all of these different polls, what’s the most unpopular? What’s setting off alarm bells here? You could see that call to end birthright citizenship, only 39% support there. Firing federal workers, this question asked about potentially firing hundreds of thousands, 51% opposition. Look at this. This is the single least popular thing Trump has done in this second term: pardoning January 6 offenders, including violent offenders. More than 80% opposed. On the flip side, he’s done some things, proposed some things that are popular: that executive order to expand oil and gas production, the executive order recognizing two sexes. And also, when you look at immigration, there’s all sorts of different ways to ask about it, but the CBS poll here had asked the general Trump Administration program to deport immigrants who are here illegally. You see broad support there when it’s asked at the broad level like that. Look at the personalities now, the public faces of this administration, not just the president. The vice president, and of course you were just talking about Elon Musk. What you’re measuring here is just basic popularity. Do you have a favorable/unfavorable view of these people? Again that Trump number looks just like his approval rating does. You could see Vance, it’s about evenly split. With Musk, it is now 50% unfavorable. And then when you ask folks just about that job that Musk has taken inside the government here, trying to find — trying to make cuts here, again, you could see 49% disapproval, only a third approving. We say a lot of similarities politically to Trump’s first term in the polls. Here’s a difference. Remember, Trump’s political strength in his first term was the economy. Again, averaging all our polls from the first Trump presidency together, nearly 50% across those four years were saying they approved of how Trump handled the economy. We know how politically potent that issue is. He campaigned on it last year. But attitudes towards the economy have not improved so far, and now it’s nearly 50% who disapprove of how Trump’s handling the economy. Now this is early, obviously, in his presidency, but we know the potency of the economy politically, and this may — these numbers right here may loom right now, Kristen, as the biggest single immediate political challenge for Donald Trump and for the Republican Party.”
WELKER: “Just a fascinating look at what Americans think right now as we prepare to enter the second month of the Trump Administration. Steve Kornacki, thanks so much.”
KORNACKI: “Hey, thank you, Kristen.”