It is easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of opinion polling coming out of the US. But then the fact is that it is overwhelmingly negative for Donald Trump and makes for delightful reading.

……and the considerable recent evidence shows just how far underwater he is.

For instance, recent polling in key states – states he won in 2024 – show how disillusioned his voters have become.

In Arizona 45% approve of him; disapprove is at 52% with neither approve nor disapprove at 3%. In Georgia it’s Approve 43%, Disapprove 52% and neither approve nor disapprove 5%. Michigan is approve 43%, disapprove 53% and neither approve nor disapprove 4%. Nevada approve 47%, disapprove: 49% and neither approve nor disapprove 4%. 

 North Carolina is approve 44%, disapprove 53% and neither approve nor disapprove 3%. Pennsylvania is approve 45%. disapprove: 52% and neither approve nor disapprove: 4%.

Wisconsin is approve: 46%, disapprove: 51% and neither approve nor disapprove. 3%

When is comes to his signature policy – tariffs – a Pew poll found only 32 percent of Americans approve of it. Trump has said the public ‘loves’ his trade tariffs, but the Pew poll found 61 percent of Americans disapprove of his tariff policies — which is consistent with several other recent national surveys that generated similar results.

Gallup tried a rather different approach to Trump’s popularity looking at a range of US and other politicians.  In a survey which asked for overall opinions of some people in the news, and as each name was read out, respondents could say if they had a favourable or unfavourable view of them or had no opinion or  they had never heard of them.

The most favourable figure in the list was Pope Leo XIV who was viewed favourably by 57% and unfavourably by 11% (presumably hard-core Protestants and assorted other US religions).  Zelensky came second with a favourable rate of 57% and unfavourable 34%.   Bernie Sanders was third with a favourable rating of 49% but opinion was polarised a bit with an unfavourable rating of 49%. Alexandria Occasion-Cortez – a hate figure for the Right had a moderately balanced rating of 34% favourable versus 38% unfavourable but 28% no opinion.

You have to work your way down the list to find Donald Trump who has a not very respectable favourability rating of 41% (see some later views on that) but an unfavourable rating of 57%. Netanyahu’s rating is less than Trump’s – 29% – but his disapproval rating is 52%.  Elon Musk scored 33% favourable and 61% unfavourable making him the person regarded as most unfavourable in the sample.

JD Vance’s unfavourable rating was 49% and favourable 38% which ought to be sobering about any chances he has of succeeding Trump – other than if Trump’s lifestyle does him in and he automatically gets elevated from VP. Another possible Presidential hopeful – Gavin Newson is favourably rated by 30% and unfavourably by 41%. He has a 28% no opinion so still has opportunities to grow his appeal.

Joe Biden is underwater in the ratings with a 54% unfavourable rating but you have to wonder if it might have been different if he had quit in time to let a better candidate run.

In Trump’s signature policy – deporting illegal immigrants – there has been a steady trend. Back in February it was approved of by 59% in a CBS News/YouGuv survey and disapproved by 41%. The approval rate fell to 54% in June and now it is at 49%. CBS News found that 52% of respondents thought there were more people being deported than expected while CNN found that 59% were opposed to deporting non-criminal unauthorised immigrants (vs 23% support).

Pew finds that opposition to Trump’s agenda is particularly high on tariffs (61% oppose, 38% support) and the GOP’s OBBBA budget bill (46% oppose, 32% support, 23% not sure). A 17-point plurality of adults say the budget bill will hurt their family.

G. Elliott Morris found that Trump’s rating remains overwhelmingly high among his voters ages 50 and older. But it has slipped considerably more among his youngest voters: 69% of Trump voters under 35 now approve of his job performance, down 23 points from the start of this term. Today about a third of the young people who voted for Trump do not approve of his presidency.

However, he also found that Trump was underwater on every key issue – immigration deportation, jobs and the economy, trade, inflation and the cost of living. He also produced data which gave the Democrats 45.2% support in generic congressional polls compared with 42.8% for Republicans. Roll on the next impeachment!

Meanwhile, the University of Michigan released its latest Michigan Consumer Sentiment report. The report indicated that Consumer Sentiment decreased from 61.7 in July to 58.6 in August, compared to the analyst consensus of 62.