Donald Trump approval rating: Americans losing faith in U.S. President's mental age? Survey reveals shocking result

Are Americans losing faith in Donald Trump's psychological ability? Only 45 per cent of respondents in the February poll said they would describe Trump as "mentally ​sharp and able to deal with challenges," down from 54 per cent in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in September 2023.

Trump won the 2024 presidential election in part because Joe Biden - his Democratic predecessor in ​the White House - was ​widely seen to have lost mental acuity ⁠as he aged in office. Biden ended his tenure at age 82 - older than any president in U.S. history. Trump is on track to beat that record and will be 80 in June.

Republicans continue to see the president as sharp, with 81 per cent of them describing the president that way in the latest poll, little changed from the 2023 survey. Among Democrats, the share seeing the president able to deal with challenges fell to 19 per cent from 29 per cent. Among people who don't identify with either political party, 36 per cent saw Trump holding onto his mental acuity, down from 53 per cent in 2023.


The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, which was conducted online, surveyed 4,638 U.S. adults nationwide and had a margin of error of two percentage points.

Most Americans ​think the country's political leadership is generally too old. Some 79 per cent of poll respondents agreed with ⁠a statement that "elected ‌officials in Washington, D.C., are too old to represent most Americans." The average age in the U.S. Senate ​is about 64, and ​in the U.S. House of Representatives, it's 58.

Democratic respondents were slightly more likely to call for younger politicians, ⁠with 58 per cent of them saying top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer, 75, was too old to ​work in government.

Trump returned to office in January 2025 at age 78, becoming the oldest president ​on inauguration day in history. Since then, he has unveiled new policies and proposals at a dizzying pace, ordering sweeping tariffs on imports from dozens of countries and deploying masked federal agents across the country to crack down on unauthorized immigration.

He has often struck an angry tone in his public remarks, including last week when he said he was "absolutely ashamed" that the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court struck down many of his tariffs as illegal. Trump went on to reinstate a series of new tariffs, arguing he could do so under a different legal authority. In November, he ‌assailed Democratic lawmakers who urged members of the U.S. military to refuse any illegal orders, calling them traitors who could face execution.