Trump begins second term in stronger position than the first: poll

President Donald Trump is kicking off his second tour of duty in the White House in a stronger polling position than during the start of his first administration eight years ago, a new national poll indicates.

Forty-six percent of voters say they approve of the job the Republican president is doing so far, with 43% disapproving, according to a Quinnipiac University survey released on Wednesday.

The poll was conducted Jan. 23-27, during Trump's first week back in the White House following his Jan. 20th inauguration.

The president's approval rating is an improvement from Quinnipiac polling in late January 2017 – as Trump began his first term in office – when he stood at 36% approval and 44% disapproval.

The survey indicates a predictable huge partisan divide over the GOP president.

'Republicans 86-4 percent approve of the job Trump is doing, while Democrats 86-8 percent disapprove,' the poll's release highlights. 'Among independents, 41 percent approve, while 46 percent disapprove and 13 percent did not offer an opinion.'

While Trump's first approval rating for his second term is a major improvement from his first term, his rating is below the standing of his predecessor, former President Biden, in the first Quinnipiac poll from his single term in office.

Biden stood at 49%-36% approval at the start of February 2021.

His approval rating hovered in the low to mid 50s during his first six months in the White House. But Biden's numbers sank into negative territory in the late summer and autumn of 2021, in the wake of his much-criticized handling of the turbulent U.S. exit from Afghanistan, and amid soaring inflation and a surge of migrants crossing into the U.S. along the nation's southern border with Mexico.

Biden's approval ratings stayed underwater throughout the rest of his presidency.

Trump has kept up a frenetic pace during his first week and a half in office, with an avalanche of executive orders and actions. His moves not only fulfilled some of his major campaign trail promises, but also allowed the returning president to flex his executive muscles, quickly put his stamp on the federal government, and also settle some longstanding grievances.

'In our first week in office, we set records, taking over 350 executive actions,' Trump touted on Wednesday. 'That's not been done before, and it has reportedly been the single most effective opening week of any presidency in history.'

According to the new poll, six in ten approve of Trump's order sending U.S. troops to the southern border to enhance security.

'The huge deployment of boots on the ground is not to a dicey, far away war theater, but to the American border. And a majority of voters are just fine with that,' Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy said.

The poll indicates 44% support deporting all undocumented immigrants, while 39% back deporting only those convicted of violent crimes.

According to the survey, 57% disapprove of Trump's pardoning or commuting the sentences of more than 1,500 people convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters aiming to upend congressional certification of Biden's 2020 election victory.

Meanwhile, by a two-to-one margin, those questioned gave a thumbs down to Biden's issuing of preemptive pardons – in his final hours in office – for five members of his family who haven’t been charged with any crimes. Voters were divided on Biden's preemptive pardons for politicians and government officials who Trump had targeted for retaliation.

The poll also indicates that 53% disapprove of Elon Musk – the world's richest person – enjoying a prominent role in the new Trump administration, with 39% approving.

Democrats lost control of the White House and the Senate majority and failed to win back control of the House in November's elections. And the new poll spells more trouble for them.

Only 31% of respondents had a favorable opinion of the Democratic Party, with 57% seeing the party in an unfavorable light.

'This is the highest percentage of voters having an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic Party since the Quinnipiac University Poll began asking this question,' the survey's release noted. 

Meanwhile, the 43% of those questioned had a favorable view of the GOP, with 45% holding an unfavorable opinion, which was the highest favorable opinion for the Republican Party ever in Quinnipiac polling.

Quinnipiac questioned 1019 self-identified registered voters nationwide. The survey's overall sampling error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.