55% of Americans say the country is headed for disaster under Trump

A new poll released just a day before the upcoming State of the Union address shows deep dissatisfaction among Americans with Donald Trump's second term in office.

A joint study by NPR, PBS News and Marist Poll found that a majority of American adults believe Trump is leading the country in the wrong direction. 55% of those surveyed believe Trump's actions are leading the country for the worse, up 13 percentage points from the same period during his first term. This negative rate has even increased by 4 percentage points since last April.

An analysis of the survey results shows that this opinion of citizens is clearly divided along political polarization. 90% of Democrats believe that the country is worse off now than it was a year ago. On the other hand, 82% of Republicans believe that the situation has improved.

However, what is worrying is that people's trust in the democratic system of government has declined significantly in the past year. In March 2025, 43 percent of Americans were satisfied with the effectiveness of the checks and balances system, but that number has now fallen to just 32 percent.

According to the latest data from the Pew Research Center, only 27 percent of Americans support most of Trump’s policies or plans. The biggest surprise has been among Trump’s own party supporters. Among Republicans or Republican-leaning citizens, confidence in his mental health has plummeted. While 75 percent of Republicans considered him mentally fit for the job last year, that number has now fallen to 66 percent.

Similarly, support among party supporters for maintaining his ethics in the administration has also fallen from 55 percent to 42 percent.

Source: The Guardian.