Ahead of state trip, Trump approval drops in nationwide Marquette poll – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A nationwide Marquette University Law School poll released two days before President Donald Trump’s visit to western Wisconsin found his approval rating dropped to 38%, the lowest point so far in his second term.
At the same time, Trump’s influence remains strong among Republican voters – 71% said they would vote for a 2026 primary candidate endorsed by Trump, the poll found.
Marquette’s national surveys have found a gradual decline in Trump’s approval since his second term began.
Trump’s net approval rating – calculated by subtracting the percentage who approve of how he’s handling his job from those who disapprove – reached negative 24 in the new poll, down three points from April.
Comparably, Trump’s net approval rating was negative 4 percentage points in the first Marquette poll conducted after he took office in early 2025.
“Dropping, collapsing, cratering: I don’t use any of those adjectives,” poll director Charles Franklin said. “What we’ve seen is a regular but steady drop of a point or two, from poll to poll, in the second term.”
Marquette surveyed 1,001 adults across the country from May 20 to 26 with a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points. The nationwide survey is separate from Marquette’s poll specific to Wisconsin voters, which is released every few months.
Marquette’s most recent poll of registered Wisconsin voters, released in March, found 42% approved of the way Trump was handling his job as president. His net approval rating in the latest poll of Wisconsin voters hit a record low of negative 14 across his two terms in office.
Franklin highlighted poll responses on inflation and the economy, which participants ranked most important to them. At the same time, Trump’s net approval on those two issues was negative 56 and negative 40, respectively.
“Put those two together, and you’ve got a solid majority saying these two things are the most important issues, and they are the two that are at the very bottom of his approval ratings,” Franklin said.
Franklin has tracked a growing divide among Republicans who are favorable to the MAGA movement and align most closely with Trump, and those who have moved away from MAGA.
The national poll found that among that first group of Republicans, 87% said they would vote for a primary candidate endorsed by Trump.
But among the 28% of Republicans who don’t align with the MAGA movement, 48% said they would vote for a Republican incumbent Trump opposes. Another 22% said they would not participate in a Republican primary at all.
“It’s not a trivial group of non-MAGA Republicans,” Franklin said. “It’s certainly not a majority of the Republican Party – Trump’s base remains strong – but the non-MAGA group is up from where it was in 2024 and early 2025.”
Trump is set to tout rural initiatives during a visit to Chippewa County on June 5, his first trip to Wisconsin since winning the state in 2024.
The county is split between two congressional districts.
Part of the county is in the 7th Congressional District, where several Republicans have lined up to replace U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is now running for governor. Trump has endorsed Michael Alfonso, the son-in-law of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, in that race.
Part of the county falls in the 3rd Congressional District, where Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden is running for reelection in the toss-up district. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s secretary of health and human services, visited the district with Van Orden on June 1.
Hope Karnopp can be reached at HKarnopp@usatodayco.com.
