Poll: Trump’s approval rating falls to new low amid mass deportation raids

As mass deportation raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continue to spark protest and split public sentiment, President Trump’s approval rating has slipped to a new low in the latest Yahoo/YouGov poll.

A survey of 1,597 U.S. adults, which was conducted from June 26 to June 30, finds that just 40% now approve of how Trump is handling his job as president, down from 44% in March. Meanwhile, a full 56% of Americans — up from 50% in March — currently disapprove of Trump’s performance. That’s a net swing of 10 percentage points away from the president over the last three months.

At this point in Trump’s first term, his disapproval rating was 13 points higher than his approval rating, according to YouGov data. Today, it’s 16 points higher. In comparison, former presidents Barack Obama (+14) and Joe Biden (+7) both enjoyed positive approval ratings halfway through their first year in office.

Immigration is no longer helping Trump

Immigration has long been an area of relative strength for Trump. Before last November’s election, 48% of Americans predicted he would do a better job on the issue than former Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival; just 36% thought Harris would do better. And even in March, after a couple of months in office, more Americans approved (48%) than disapproved (44%) of how Trump was actually handling immigration as president — in contrast to nearly every other issue.

But that’s no longer the case. Throughout 2025, Trump’s disapproval rating on immigration has steadily risen — to 46% in April, then 48% in May — before jumping to 52% in June, amid the recent ICE raids. At the same time, the president’s approval rating on immigration has fallen to 44%.

In other words, what was a net positive issue for him (+4 points in March) is now a net negative (-8).

Immigration isn’t the only area where Trump has lost ground over the last month. Disapproval of how he’s handling the cost of living (up from 59% to 63%) and trade and tariffs (from 57% to 60%) has also shot up.

But the new Yahoo/YouGov poll suggests that ICE’s ongoing crackdown may be having a bigger effect on the public.

Americans think ICE raids are targeting ‘mostly the wrong people’

With workplace raids and “roving patrols,” ICE has dramatically ramped up its efforts to apprehend and deport undocumented immigrants in recent weeks throughout major cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle.

The Trump administration claims its agents are targeting “the worst of the worst — including gang members, murderers and rapists” who have “reigned terror” on American communities. The Department of Homeland Security frequently puts out press releases publicizing the capture of these “heinous criminals.”

But on-the-ground reporting has revealed that ICE is also sweeping up otherwise law-abiding immigrants — and even some U.S. citizens — as it strives to meet the administration’s new quota of 3,000 arrests a day, up from 1,000 previously, and kick-start what Trump has described as “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.”

This shift has not proven to be popular, according to the Yahoo/YouGov survey.

Far more Americans now say they disapprove (50%) than approve (36%) of the "large-scale deportation raids in Los Angeles and other cities," for instance. Among Latino Americans (who voted for Trump last November in record numbers) that gap is bigger: 62% disapprove to 19% approve. Even independents (who tend to swing elections one way or the other) disapprove (57%) rather than approve (32%) of Trump’s ICE raids by a wide margin.

Overall, a majority of Americans (51%) now think Trump has gone too far in "arresting and deporting immigrants" — a number that’s ticked up 4 points since April. Fewer say his approach has been about right (26%) or that he hasn’t gone far enough (15%). A full 55% of independents think Trump has gone too far.

Public opinion appears to turn on who Trump is targeting for deportation. According to the Wall Street Journal, top White House aide Stephen Miller — the architect of Trump’s immigration agenda — held a testy meeting in May at ICE headquarters, where he demanded that officers do “what they needed to do” to make more arrests, including rounding up noncriminals in public places.

Miller told agents they “didn’t need to develop target lists of immigrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally, a long-standing practice,” the Journal reported. “Instead, he directed them to target Home Depot, where day laborers typically gather for hire, or 7-Eleven convenience stores. Miller bet that he and a handful of agents could go out on the streets of Washington, D.C., and arrest 30 people right away.”

When asked to choose which immigration approach they prefer, however, just a quarter of Americans (25%) say the federal government should follow Miller’s blueprint and "round up and deport as many undocumented immigrants as possible, regardless of whether they’ve committed other crimes."

Far more (61%) want to "deport undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes since arriving in the U.S., but create a pathway to citizenship for those who have otherwise obeyed the law."

As a result, a greater number of Americans now think ICE is deporting "mostly the wrong people" (40%) rather than “mostly the right people” (37%).

Protests divide opinion — but most disapprove of Trump’s military response

Negative sentiment about arrests and deportations has tarnished ICE’s image as well. Most Americans now see the agency unfavorably (52%) rather than favorably (39%), and the number who view it very unfavorably (40%) is nearly twice as large as the number who view it very favorably (23%).

Reflecting this backlash, ICE gets overwhelmingly negative ratings from Democrats (8% favorable, 85% unfavorable), Latino-Americans (25% favorable, 67% unfavorable), African-Americans (11% favorable, 63% unfavorable) and adults between the ages of 18 and 29 (28% favorable, 61% unfavorable).

Among white Americans, however, more see ICE favorably (48%) than unfavorably (45%).

As for the protests against recent ICE raids by people in Los Angeles and elsewhere, more Americans approve (47%) than disapprove (40%). But that gap is smaller than the one between those who disapprove (again, 50%) and approve (36%) of the raids themselves, suggesting at least some Americans think the protests went too far. In line with that theory, a majority say the protests were either “mostly violent” (26%) or “about equally peaceful and violent” (28%) rather than “mostly peaceful” (37%).

Either way, Trump’s response to the protests — sending “nearly 5,000 armed troops to the city against the objections of state and local officials" — is just as unpopular as the raids themselves, with 50% of Americans saying they disapprove and just 38% saying they approve.

__________________

The Yahoo News survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,597 U.S. adults interviewed online from June 26 to 30, 2025. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 election turnout and presidential vote, party identification and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Party identification is weighted to the estimated distribution at the time of the election (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S. adults. The margin of error is approximately 3.2%.