A Fox News national survey released Monday found that President Donald Trump scores his strongest approval on border security even as a clear majority of voters say his administration has made the economy worse.
By a 22-point margin, 52% of registered voters told pollsters the Trump administration has made the economy worse while 30% said it has made it better. Overall economic sentiment was broadly negative: 71% described the state of the economy as negative and fewer than 15% said they were getting ahead financially.
The economy remained voters' top issue, cited by 37% as most important, followed by immigration and border security at 13%, and health care and political division at 11% each. While concerns over some costs eased from a year ago — the share calling gas prices a "major" problem fell from 48% to 33% — other costs rose as major problems, including health care (up 7 points) and utilities (up 2 points). Large majorities still described housing, groceries, utilities and health care as at least minor problems.
Trump’s highest marks were on border security, where 57% approved of his handling, and on crime, where 50% approved. Immigration overall drew 47% approval. His approval on the economy stood at 39%, slightly above his record low, and his handling of tariffs and the cost of living were rated at 36% and 32%, respectively.
"The question former President Biden's team was asking a year ago was whether voters would get used to an $8 box of cereal, and the answer was no," Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who conducts Fox News surveys with Democratic counterpart Chris Anderson, said in the report. "I think the Trump team is finding this dynamic still holds. It's not enough that prices aren't rising, they need to come down. If not, 2026 will be a bad year for the GOP." The poll was conducted before the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on Wednesday.
Trump's overall job approval measured 46% approval and 54% disapproval in the survey, down from a peak of 49% in March. Fully 88% of Republicans approve of his performance, as do 55% of men under 45 and 48% of Hispanic voters. Among all voters, stronger disapproval outweighs strong approval by 45% to 25%, creating a 20-point intensity gap comparable to approval patterns for President Joe Biden during much of his term.
The survey also measured views beyond the White House. Forty-six percent approved of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s performance as secretary of Health and Human Services, with higher marks among parents and fathers. Fifty-three percent approved of Jerome Powell's performance as Federal Reserve chair; about half of those who approved of Trump also approved of Powell, the poll found.
Voters expressed growing pessimism about the future. Sixty-two percent said they think life will be worse for the next generation, up from 53% a year earlier and the second-highest level of pessimism recorded in Fox News polling back to 2002. Parents and fathers were more likely than nonparents and mothers, respectively, to express optimism about the next generation.
The poll explored attitudes about law, governance and the courts. Three-quarters of respondents said a president should "always" follow the law, while one-quarter said the country needed a president willing to "break some laws" to set things right; that balance was unchanged since December 2023. Confidence in local courts was higher (66%) than in federal courts (58%) or the Supreme Court (55%), with partisan splits evident: 78% of Republicans said they have confidence in the Supreme Court versus 47% of independents and 34% of Democrats.
Conducted Sept. 6-9, 2025, under the direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), the Fox News survey interviewed 1,004 registered voters randomly selected from a national voter file. Respondents spoke with live interviewers on landlines and cellphones or completed the survey online after receiving a text. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points, with larger margins for subgroups. Fox News noted that question wording and order can influence results and that weights were applied to ensure demographic representation.