Trump Touts Approval Ratings as Second-Term Executive Orders Stir Controversy

President Donald Trump highlighted his polling numbers on Wednesday as he spoke to reporters from the White House lawn, claiming renewed public support amid a flurry of executive action in his second term.

“My approval rating is the highest it’s ever been,” the president declared, referring to a newly released national survey.

While Trump’s approval rating has ticked upward in select polls, the broader picture remains mixed. Most national surveys over the past three weeks still show the president underwater—with disapproval ratings outpacing approval—though the gap has narrowed in some battleground states.

Now five months into his second tour of duty in the White House following his 2024 re-election, Trump has moved swiftly and unilaterally to implement campaign promises and settle old political scores. He has overturned longstanding government policies and launched efforts to dramatically reduce the federal workforce, issuing a wave of sweeping and often controversial executive orders.

Some of these moves reflect grievances dating back to his first term, with Trump targeting federal agencies, programs, and regulations he has long criticised as bloated, unaccountable, or ideologically opposed to his agenda.

The president’s assertive posture has drawn praise from loyalists and criticism from Democrats and moderate Republicans, who accuse him of executive overreach. Yet Trump appears determined to deliver on what he has framed as a mandate to “finish the job” he began in 2017.

As public opinion remains divided, one thing is clear: the second Trump presidency is moving fast—and rewriting the rules of Washington once again.