| At the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, a Wall Street Journal poll found that voters said they liked his ideas to get tough on immigration, crime and make the federal government more efficient while boosting the economy — but they were concerned he’d go too far. Trump is now deep into shifting the country into a far-right government, weakening federal agencies’ ability to respond to natural disasters and disease outbreaks; filling it with his allies who are willing to go after his perceived enemies and silence his critics, deporting thousands of migrant workers; and single-handedly instituting tariffs that are raising prices and could send the economy into a recession. Many of his major policies are unpopular, and most Americans disapprove of how he’s handling his job. Here’s more about how voters feel about Trump. Vaccine policies and health care access leave most Americans skeptical Many Americans and Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are at odds on vaccines: A majority of Americans believe vaccines — including the coronavirus vaccines — are safe, according to an Economist/YouGov survey conducted from Aug. 29 to Sept. 2. Parents across the political spectrum overwhelmingly support school vaccination requirements for measles and polio, according to a Washington Post-KFF poll conducted in July and August. Nearly half of Americans say Kennedy rejects the science on vaccines, Economist/YouGov found. Last week, multiple senators, including Republicans, accused Kennedy of making it harder to get a vaccine even if, in some cases, their doctor recommends it. “I’m a doctor. Vaccines work,” Sen. John Barrasso (Wyoming), the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, told Kennedy. Trump and Republicans also recently passed an unpopular bill that nonpartisan estimates and experts say could leave 17 million Americans uninsured — either from changes to Medicaid or expiring federal subsidies for Affordable Care Act market plans — to help pay for a continuation of Trump’s tax cuts. Americans are pessimistic about the economy Americans routinely say high prices are their most important issue, yet they have little faith so far in Trump’s ability to bring them down. Economist/YouGov finds that it’s one of the issues on which he has his lowest approval ratings. Inflation is just one aspect of the economy that worries Americans. Joblessness is at its highest since the pandemic, and a Quinnipiac University survey conducted in August finds that 57 percent disapprove of how Trump is handling the economy overall. Fifty-six percent disapprove of how he’s handling tariffs, which economists say are severely slowing the economy and raising prices. “It’s insane,” said Michael Strain, an economist with the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, in a recent interview on tariffs. “This is an enormous self-inflicted wound on the economy, and to see our government do this to American businesses and households is something I never thought I would see.” Step ever father back, and more than three-quarters of Americans are pessimistic they can improve their standing in life, a new Wall Street Journal-NORC poll found, reporting it’s a record low belief in the American Dream. Some polls show mass deportations are unpopular Trump campaigned on conducting the biggest deportation in U.S. history. Nine months in, he is on track to deport the highest number of people in a decade, raiding workplaces, parking lots and testing the bounds of the law by deporting people, sometimes to countries they have no ties to, without a hearing. Some polls find that Americans largely oppose what they’re seeing. Fifty-five percent say he’s gone too far in deporting people, according to a July CNN poll conducted by SSRS. A new CBS News-YouGov poll finds the public more evenly split. Yet, experts expect deportations to increase. An influx of funding from Republicans’ tax and immigration bill could make immigration agents into what the Brennan Center for Justice calculates will be one of the largest police forces in America. “This is going to have ICE agents in every neighborhood, in every courthouse, in every public place you can imagine,” said David Bier, director of immigration studies at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute. “It’s the police state.” Immigration is still a generally popular issue for Trump so long as he frames it right, said Sarah Chamberlain, who leads the Republican Main Street Partnership, which supports Republicans in Congress. She said in a recent interview that voters she’s talked to like that border crossings have dropped under Trump. Americans are hesitant about sending troops into U.S. cities Trump’s handling of crime is the only issue where a majority (a slight majority) say they approve, according to Economist/YouGov. Yet Trump’s No. 1 tool to handle crime — sending troops into cities — is unpopular. Americans are open to it (42 percent), but 49 percent say they’re opposed, Economist/YouGov found. And opposition is even higher for sending troops into Americans’ own cities, with 52 percent disapproving. “Chicago [is] about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” Trump wrote on social media this weekend, before walking it back. “I think it’s one of the scariest things that a president can do,” Ariela Rosenberg, a national security expert with Protect Democracy, told me in June when Trump sent troops into Los Angeles against local officials’ wishes. The country is wary of Trump’s retaliation Trump was clear during his campaign that he wanted to use the machinery of the federal government to go after his critics. “I am your retribution,” he said. Economist/YouGov finds just 20 percent of Americans say Trump would be justified in directing the Justice Department to go after his political enemies, while 61 percent say he wouldn’t be. Trump has been doing this. His government has launched investigations and/or withheld funds from law firms that represented his opponents, liberal universities and even individual people. The FBI recently raided the home of one of Trump’s fiercest critics, former national security adviser John Bolton. Earlier this year, he signed two remarkable executive actions calling for investigations into two officials from his first administration. “Dissent isn’t unlawful,” one of the targeted men, Miles Taylor, wrote on social media. “It certainly isn’t treasonous. America is headed down a dark path. Never has a man so inelegantly proved another man’s point.” | 
